The Reality of Life with a Superhero
by saichick-Anna-Erishkigal
Summary: Post IM-2.  Pepper always dreamed of making a life with Tony Stark, but now that he's won her heart, life with a superhero isn't easy.  Some epic drama always comes along.  Will they make it?  Or will Tonys' Iron Man alter ego destroy their love?
1. PROLOGUE

_Disclaimers: This is a massive reorganization of the story I've been eking out over the past month into novel form. Iron Man, Pepper, and the Avengers all belong to Marvel. References to Stargate characters belongs to MGM. Everything else that doesn't belong to somebody else is mine and is copyrighted (if such a hybrid exists) to me. I write to please myself and get no monetary interest in writing this whatsoever ... just don't want nobody sticking their name on my work and making a lot of money. Marvels' pre-pubescent Iron Man II script really SUCKED in a lot of places and I could do better by projecting things forward into the future. Like, DUH, fanfic gals spend a lot more money at the theaters than 14-year-old-boys! Marvel/Paramount is as immature and clueless as pre-Afghanistan Tony Stark was! The "conflicted anti-hero" is so 2003/pre-recession CountryWide Mortgage self-justification for bad behavior! As the Bonnie Tyler song goes "I need a hero_, _I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night, he's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast, and gotta be fresh from the fight." __I like my men strong and not afraid to commit, my women even -stronger-, lots of credible hard-core sci-fi tech that has plausible scientific explanations, and a fair amount of really good kicking-ass! _

_The new chapters are in the MIDDLE (villian chapters ... boo, hiss) ... ch.14, 18, 20 (you need a credible psychopath to make a good superhero story work)  
_

_Would really appreciate honest, critical reviews of places things drag, glaring scientific or other errors, botched Wiki-cultural references, places where I have failed to build enough of a case to get the reader to enter a "temporary suspension of disbelief" of things that otherwise wouldn't fly, and most of all, critique my very first-ever attempt at creating a credible, realistic VILLAIN to get the reader pull the covers up to their nose and have bad dreams after reading. Expanded upon some really steamy Pepperony goodness to please those of you who requested it (i.e., unabashed smut) :-) My eternal appreciation to those kind souls who have added their comments so far ... I hope everyone sees the little tidbits of your ideas. Please review... :-)_

_I'm thinking of doing a sequel ... either Avengers School or Pepper/Rescue Superheroine thread. What do people think?_

_PROLOGUE_

_B.C.E. 11,057 – the Valley of Spirits_

S'et absent-mindedly drummed his claws on his captains' chair as the navigator guided the ship towards the cobalt blue planet. The Maklu'an were a young race, at least insofar as intergalactic travel was concerned. The powerful Alterans, who had protected his planet for untold centuries, had been greatly weakened in a distant war with an alien race and driven back to his own galaxy, the Milky Way. Desperate for allies to help patrol the galaxy which was their last stand, the Alterans had given the Maklu'an and several other races, collectively called the Alliance, just enough technology to deal with their own threat, a parasitical race who had stolen this same technology from the Alterans.

The parasites had the ability to infect and take control of the body of any sentient being. Since it was often impossible to tell one's own officers were infected until it was too late, the parasites had spread across this sector like ants. S'et had been dispatched in a small battle cruiser to investigate reports that one of the warlords, a parasite calling himself R'a, had infected a local host and was building a base of power on the M-class planet. The planet had, at one time, been an Alteran stronghold until war and disease had reduced their numbers. Ensuring R'a didn't locate the old Alteran bases (and their technology) was critical.

S'et growled appreciation as a young enson, U'chen, a hatchling from one of his elder sister An'ats clutches, brought him his customary apteka, a mildly stimulating drink with properties similar to coffee. The navigator, G'rok, clicked and hissed data readings to Set in the Maklu'an tongue, the sudden chameleon-like blending of his scales with the console in front of him as sure a sign of the seriousness of the information as anything G'rok said. This was not good… According to the readings, not only were they picking up the telltale energy signature of multiple stolen Alteran power sources, but the parasite was in the process of building an armada of warships. R'a had obviously succeeded in reverse engineering the Alteran technology. S'et hissed displeasure and ordered G'rok to breach the planets' atmosphere.

"Red alert," he growled over the intercom as the ship began to began to shake upon breaching the planetary atmosphere, "we're coming in for a landing." S'et sipped his apteka and snorted as a particularly unwelcome bump caused him to dribble the hot beverage down his snout and onto his uniform. "U'chen," he hissed, "go get something to clean this up!" U'chen promptly complied.

He was a good boy, S'et mused. S'et had not found a compatible mate of his own, so he had taken U'chen under his mentorship at An'ats request. U'chen was of unusually slight build for a Maklu'an, barely 1.75 galactic meters in height, but he was incredibly smart. The lad spent all of his spare time down in the science lab with their Altaran advisor, Gaia, tinkering with the ships AI. The Alteran had saved young U'Chens life as a hatchling by injecting tiny nanite machines into his blood to cure a congenital defect.

The Maklu'an had only recently evolved enough as a species beyond their warlike past to win the Alteran's trust, so having been born a "weakling" would always impede U'chens advancement within his own species no matter how smart he was. Still, S'et liked the hatchling, and the Maklu'an were inherently a noble race. One day, he hoped, U'chen would use the knowledge he gained from both his uncle's tutelage and the knowledge he learned from the Alteran to attain his own command within the Alliance.

"Sir!" G'rok hissed, his forked tongue flitting nervously from his fangs, "they have a planetary defense system. The parasite has a weapons lock on us!" The rest of G'rok's scales faded into the background, rendering him nearly invisible but for the dark green of his Maklu'an uniform.

"Evasive maneuvers!" S'et snarled, his tail angrily twitching from side to side. "See if you can get a weapons' lock on their power source. Blast it off this confounded planet!"

S'et's second in command, G'dong, came onto the bridge at that moment and crouched into the seat next to G'rock to man the weapons console. Small anti-ship fire rattled the ships' shields as R'a activated his planetary defense system . G'dong returned fire. S'et's intelligence sources had failed to mention R'a had such a system.

Just then, the ship shuddered as a particularly large explosion rocked the rear of the ship. "We're hit, we're hit!" G'dong shouted as sparks shot out of the electronics and the room went dark. Backup systems quickly restored some emergency lighting, but the ship was finished. "They've hit our main propulsion system. Sir … we're going down!"

S'et growled an announcement over the intercom, which was on the backup system, for the crew to assume crash positions. "Aim the ship for that plain east of that large mountain range!" he ordered G'rock. "G'dong … see what you can do to cloak our landing position from that bastard!" No matter what happened, S'et wanted to give his crew a chance to survive if any of them survived the crash. S'et was thrown from his chair, across the bridge, into the wall, and then back towards his chair by the impact.

S'et was unconscious for a long time, but gradually he became aware of a voice, U'chen, calling his name. "Uncle, please wake up," he heard U'chen cry as he became aware of excruciating pain piercing through his lungs. He looked into U'chen's intelligent gold eyes and noted his iris's had constricted to concerned slits. S'et was having trouble breathing. He looked around and saw the mangled bodies of G'dong and G'rok protruding from the collapsed bridge.

Gaia, the Alteran advisor, knelt at his side and solemnly stated, "our technology is great, old friend, but this is an injury I cannot heal. You need to pass command to the survivors. You must give them a mission so they don't enter the R'mokur'a (the suicide)."

"How many?" S'et asked, feeling his life fading from his body. "How many survived?"

"Nine," Gaia, the Alteran, murmured. "Only nine, but U'chen is amongst them. He is unharmed. The people on this planet are genetically similar to Altarans. We seeded this planet with life millennia ago. With guidance, the indigenous population can someday overthrow R'a. U'chen will survive if you give him a mission that overrides your species ancient dictate to enter the R'mokur'a (suicide) when they have failed their leader. You _must _give the hatchlings a mission!"

"Yes," S'et whispered. "Bring them to me." He turned his head to U'chen. Several other young Maklu'an stood behind him, all barely old enough to leave the clutch. The Maklu'an were an unusually long-lived species. They just might survive long enough for the Alliance to launch a rescue mission. Three of the survivors were females, he noted with satisfaction. The last duty S'et could perform was ensure his people's outdated war-like customs did not force these young cadets to commit suicide. The Alteran would help them survive. "U'chen," he whispered.

U'chen crawled over the debris to S'et's body, vainly attempting to stem the bleeding from the large beam which was sticking through his chest. "Uncle," he cried, "I will accompany you into R'mok (heaven)."

"No," S'et hissed, weakly wrapping his tail around U'chen's ankle. "You must complete my mission before you can take the R'mokur'a! You must help this Alteran overthrow R'a. You must guide the locals until they are evolved enough to join the Kakarantharian Alliance. If any one of you dies, the others must pick up this mantle and fulfill my mission. Do you understand, U'chen?"

"Yes, uncle," U'chen cried. Behind him, S'et saw the other hatchlings murmur and nod acceptance of the burden. R'mokur'a would have been preferable to eking out a harsh existence on an alien planet, but the Maklu'an were no longer a primitive race of warriors. They had a responsibility to uphold as the newest members of the Alliance, and they would do so.

S'et reached up his claws to gently touch U'chen's snout as the life faded from his body. "You are like a son to me, U'chen. You are commander of this crew now. Make me proud…"

U'chen howled in grief and burst into un-warrior like tears as the last breath left S'ets body and his eyes went blank. Gaia reached out her hand and gently closed both sets of eyelids, caressing the scales on his cheek as she bowed her head and wept. After a moment, she put her hand on U'chen's shoulder and said, "U'chen, it's time to go. You must lead these people." U'chen complied.

…..

On the ground, the indigenous population watched as the gods threw a fiery ball of smoke down from the sky and the earth exploded, blackening the sky with debris for weeks as the ship tore an impact crater 20 miles long into the Mongolian plain. From what had once been flat grassland, the canyon culminated into a massive smoking impact crater 2 miles deep. A few curious villagers who had wandered into the valley came back with terrifying reports of demons with godlike magical capabilities. For thousands of years, any living creature foolish enough to enter the Valley of Spirits would slowly sicken and die from a terrible curse that caused their hair, their teeth, even their skin to rot before death mercifully ended their punishment. For thousands of years, the local tribes whispered legends about the dragons who had crawled out of the jagged valley and headed west.


	2. Chapter 1

_CHAPTER 1_

_April, 2011:_

Pepper was annoyed … again. A better person would have understood why Tony had to keep donning his armor and flying into battle, understood that he was saving lives. A better person would have done everything in their power to support his decision to make the world a safer place, but, DAMMIT! She couldn't be that person. The endless nights spent worrying whether he would survive his latest mission or be captured wore on her.

Tony had reassured her it would get better, that she would get used to him flying off for 2-3 days at a time, coming home bloody and bruised, sleeping it off, then retreating into his Stark cave to repair the armor, but she just wasn't able to adjust. Pepper was an emotional wreck.

It didn't help that along with her new role as CEO of Stark Industries (Tony had convinced her to rescind her resignation) had come significant responsibility. Although she was now the person running the show, the Board of Directors and Stark Industries' customers expected, no, demanded, that the great Tony Stark make an occasional appearance, something Tony couldn't be bothered with. He hated all chores related to running his company and still expected Pepper to shield him from the tedious task, something which put Pepper into quite the conundrum now that she was technically his boss. What Pepper needed was somebody to shield _her _from these tasks. She didn't have time to play nursemaid to Tony.

Natalie, no, she corrected in her mind, _Natasha, _had actually turned out to be quite the blessing. During the Ivan Vanko fiasco, Natalie had stepped right in and made the calls necessary to help her clean up the Stark Expo mess. Media reports had surprisingly turned out to be favorable, especially when first responders testified Pepper had refused to leave until every single attendee was safely out of the park, and questions no longer lingered about her competence as CEO.

There really _shouldn't _have been any question. It was ironically Justin Hammer who had been the first to observe that Pepper "thought like a CEO." Anybody who had dealt with her ruthlessly blackmailing both the Board of Directors and the Pentagon into continuing the search for Tony long after others had written him off as dead had earned her the nickname "Red Dragon." Cross Pepper Potts and she would have you on your back with one of her signature high heels at your jugular, metaphorically speaking, faster than Black Widow could take out a room full of armed assailants. Unfortunately, Natalie was now gone, reassigned by SHIELD to other matters, and none of the assistants Pepper had hired to replace her could fill her shoes.

Then there were all the strange new SHIELD "superhero" friends hanging around the mansion… Pepper pushed _that _thought right out of her mind. Tony may have achieved the status of "superhero" with his suit technology, but he was still a homo sapien. The others? Tony was completely nonplussed at the revelation superhumans, aliens, and deities had long walked the earth, but Pepper couldn't even _begin _to wrap her mind around THAT concept. It was just too much…

To Tony, dangerous missions were an aphrodisiac. He had always had a voracious sexual appetite, she knew, but using the suit raised his libido to an entirely new level. No matter how bloody and battered he was upon his return, reeking of smoke and sweat, he would sweep her into his arms and kiss her like a ravenous wolf tasting its first meal in months. He was insatiable, and Pepper had to admit she really enjoyed their post-mission lovemaking. After ten-and-one-half years of fantasizing about what it would be like to make love to her handsome former boss, the reality had surpassed her most passionate longings. Tony loved her. She had no doubt about that, and all fears that he would sink back into his old habits and stray had long since been allayed.

Tonight was one of those nights. No sooner had the robotic assistants removed his armor when he pulled her into his arms, hands wrapped behind her head and back so she couldn't escape. She tried to protest, but he silenced her with a ravenous kiss. Warmth spread through her body as her angst dissolved and her mind sidetracked into how good it felt to press her body against his rock-hard abdomen and feel his manhood respond to her embrace.

"Miss me?" Tony whispered into her ear, nibbling on the side of her neck?

"Mmmpfff…" Pepper complained, going weak in the knees as the scent of sweat, smoke, and arousal combined into the heady perfume of desire. "Tony, you stink…."

"Yeh…." he murmured, continuing his administrations to the nape of her neck. The little hairs on her skin stood at attention as a pleasant tingling sensation spread from her most private areas to the rest of her body.

"You really need to take a shower…" she halfheartedly complained. At the rate they were going, Pepper very much doubted they'd make it to the shower.

"You'll come with me, right…" Tony huskily pleaded, sliding down the strap of her tank dress and nibbling on her shoulder blade. No … it didn't look like they were going to make it…

"Mmmmm…." Pepper murmured. It was no use. Surrendering to her desire, Pepper nipped his chin and proceeded to unzip his neoprene under-suit. Barely making it to the workshop sofa, Tony and Pepper joined in a dance as old as humanity itself.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony Stark woke with a big smile on his face. JARVIS had been reprogrammed to not drone his 7:00 a.m. "good morning" speech without first being prompted, "Good Morning, JARVIS." The last thing Tony wanted was to be jolted out of his content revelry next to Pepper every morning. Instead, starting at 7:00 a.m., JARVIS would sound a low chime and, every 10 minutes, chime again until his masters greeted him.

The sky had not yet begun to lighten. Tony estimated it was around 4:30 a.m. He stretched and yawned, being careful not to dislodge Pepper from his arm, and contemplated which speech he would use today to rouse his sleeping beauty.

If anybody was going to be the first person Pepper opened her eyes to and heard every morning, Tony had decided, it would be him. For most of his life, Tony had pursued loose women and then abandoned them to find their own way out after a meaningless roll in the hay, hoping they'd take a hint there would be no second night. He habitually only needed 4-5 hours sleep, unlike Pepper who couldn't function without a good solid 8 hours, but he wanted her to always know that she was special, that he would never leave her. He woke up early most mornings and went down to his workshop to tinker, but first he would always awaken Pepper just enough to let her know she meant the world to him. He hoped that, as she drifted back to sleep, her dreams would be of him. Suitable romantic lines from a movie popped into his head to be today's wake up speech.

He affectionately nuzzled Pepper's ear and whispered, "wake up, sleeping beauty…" Her chest to evenly rose and fell in a deep slumber

"Mmmmmm," she complained, burrowing deeper into his armpit and the blankets. "Go away…"

Tony thought back to the first time he had performed his morning ritual. After their kiss on the rooftop had been interrupted, Tony had gently carried Pepper in his arms and flown to his New York corporate suite. She was terrified, and exhilarated, but after all he had gone through to make her understand he was in love with her (combined with the fact he had nearly lost her to Vanko's exploding drones), there was no way Tony was going to let anything come between them ever again.

There had always been something special between them. For 10 years they had circled each other like an electron circling a hydrogen particle, forever bound to each other by the others irresistible magnetic pull, but never touching. It took 3 months in a cave to make him realize what was right under his nose. Unfortunately, his experience in expressing his feelings was no more developed than that of an awkward schoolboy. His awkward attempts at wooing her were misconstrued, more the actions of a smitten schoolboy pulling his first loves' ponytail at recess than the actions of a grown man. Winning her heart had turned out to be a lot more difficult than picking up the flavor of the day!

They had made love that first time like desperate, hungry beasts. Getting him out of his armor without his robotic aids had been a challenge (now he knew the frustration couples must have felt during the Victorian era!), but the delay had also heightened their lovemaking (he never _had _found several of the small pieces cast off from his armor in the process). Although he had told her a hundred thousand times in his head that he loved her, had always loved her, had known for quite some time that he was hopelessly in love with her and had been trying for months to find the words, he had been too terrified to speak the words aloud. Instead, he conveyed his feelings the only way he knew how, through his body, his touch, the way he looked intently into her eyes and refused to break eye contact as they made love.

When he had awoken at his usual pre-dawn hour that first time to discover he hadn't dreamed Pepper asleep in his arms, he determined he would do whatever it took to make sure no more misunderstandings kept them apart. He was not a "natural" in the romance department, he had discovered to his dismay. Although there had been countless women in his life, Pepper was the only one he had ever fallen in love with.

Waking up next to her felt good. That perpetual empty feeling which had crushed his chest since his parents had died was gone, replaced with a warm glow. Tony was terrified she would wake up, realize she had made a huge mistake, and leave him. She had, after all, just quit. Although he knew without a doubt that he was hopelessly in love with her, he did not know how she felt about _him_. For most of his life, sex had been separate from feelings, and he feared it might be the same with her. Lines from a high school play popped into his head. Tony had always had the flare for the dramatic. He was surprised that it had never occurred to him to use his high school acting experience to woo her.

Tony had nuzzled her cheek, much as he was nuzzling her cheek now, and spoke to her in his deepest, most romantic voice,

"_What angel awakens me from my mortal bed?_"

"Mmmmm…" Pepper had replied then, much as she was doing now. Pepper liked her sleep and was always reluctant to wake up.

Tony had tenderly caressed a lock of stray red hair away from her cheek and continued in his sultriest, most Elizabethan British accent:"

"_I__ pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:  
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;  
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;  
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me  
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee." **_

As she had opened her eyes and realized where she was, who she was with, he saw conflicting emotions cross her face. For a moment he was afraid she would bolt out the door wearing nothing but a sheet. He gave her his most passionate kiss and gazed deep into her cerulean blue eyes while continuing:

"_O Pepper, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!  
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?  
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show  
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!  
That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,  
Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow  
When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss  
This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" **_

Pepper responded to the kiss that followed before suddenly stopping and asking him, "Tony, were you just quoting … Shakespeare?"

"Mmmmm…" he moaned, aroused once more, speaking and kissing her at the same time. "I was, mmmm, cast as, mmmm, Puck, mmmm, in high school."

He and Pepper had never made it out of bed that day, but now that they had been a couple for nearly a year, other duties constantly intruded upon their time together. He couldn't make the world go away, but at least he could steal these few moments every morning to inspire Pepper to have sweet dreams of them together. His mind snapping back to the present, Tony focused on the movie scene he had in mind for today's wake-up call:

"_Oh, Pepper, wake from this hateful sleep._

_It deprives me of your beauty_

_The beauty of your eyes." ***_

"Mmmm, Tony," she murmured sleepily, opening her eyes and smiling. "What will it be today?"

He continued:

"_You are my sun! My moon! My starlit sky._

_Without you, I dwell in darkness._

_I love you." ***_

Pepper stretched and rolled towards him, nuzzling her cheek into his chest, and murmured the next line in the movie, _"What are you doing here?"_

Tony smiled and kissed her cheek. Willow was one of Peppers favorite movies and he had bagged her replaying this scene many times. He finished the script:

"_Your power has enchanted me._

_I stand helpless against it._

_Come to me, now._

_Let me worship you in my arms._

_I love you. ***_

There was more he could have play-acted, but it was very early and Pepper had already fallen back to sleep. Gently he extricated his arm from her so as not to disturb her rest and whispered, _"Death next to love is a trivial thing. Your touch is worth a thousand deaths_._"_

** quoted from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," by William Shakespeare

***Madmartigans speech quoted from the movie "Willow"


	3. Chapter 2

_CHAPTER 2_

_May 2011:_

As usual, Pepper came home from work looking forward to a quiet night together with Tony, but the mansion was full of people. No, not just _any _people (if you could call them that, forchristssakes, some of them weren't even _human_). Superheroes! She silently spat out the word as though coughing up a hairball.

As soon as she pulled up the driveway to the manse, she knew it was going to be one of _those _nights. Nick Fury's obnoxious black hummer (retrofitted to the teeth with James Bond super-spy gadgets) blocked the drive and she had to walk the last quarter-mile up the hill. And she thought Tony's taste in cars was flamboyant! All manner of motorized vehicles (some bearing propulsion systems she couldn't even begin to fathom) littered the driveway as though a child had emptied their box of Matchbox cars onto the rug and then left them there.

Captain America had tried to be a gentleman by pulling his red, white, and blue Cadillac (the Captain only bought American-made cars) off to the side of the driveway, but unfortunately he'd taken out a rare Himalayan Wild Date Palm in the process. To make matters worse, Pepper snapped a heel on the long walk up. The final straw was when she reached the front door and noticed scorch marks blackening one side of the front door (thank you, Thor!) and that the flowers lining the walkway had been smashed underneath enormous footprints (thank you, too, Hulk!)

"What the HELL is going on here!" Pepper shouted as soon as she limped inside and realized the chaos outside the house paled in comparison to the mess that greeted her inside. She stood there, frozen in shock, her hands spread out at her sides in disbelief at what she was seeing.

"Oh, hi honey," stated Tony, animatedly strutting around the mansion barking orders and waving his arms. "How was work today?"

"What … is this … mess?" Pepper retorted, gesturing at the mess with exasperation.

"Oh, some crazy dictator in Myanmar got his hands on a nuclear missile and is threatening to blow up Thailand," Tony replied nonchalantly as though nuking your neighbor was the most natural thing to do in the world. "We're gearing up to go rain on his parade. Hey, did you bring anything for supper?"

Just then, a group of SHIELD agents aided by the Hulk brushed past her carrying a box of heavy equipment and knocked her into the waterfall which ran from floor to ceiling by the staircase. Plop! Although she caught herself before she actually fell into the water feature, she was left standing in ankle-deep water with her $750 Ralph Lauren heels and brushed the glass wall which channeled the water down in front of it just long enough to thoroughly soak her brand new Christian Dior silk suit. Pepper otherwise avoided serious mishap, but the Standing Man sculpture (the one _she _had picked out) that stood in front of the waterfall was not so lucky. The Giaccometti was bent all the way down to the floor.

"Ooops," the Hulk grunted and continued on his way as though it was no big deal.

"Honey, could you call out and order a couple of dozen pizzas?" Tony asked, oblivious to her distress or the fact that her face had turned a dark purple color.

"Get … out!" Pepper snarled, gesturing to the SHIELD agents who had just knocked her down.

"Hey, honey, what's wrong?" Tony asked. "What are you doing standing in the fountain?"

"GET … OUT … OF … MY … HOUSE!" she screamed, waving her hands around as though fending off a wasp attack. "GET OUT!"

Total silence descended upon the room as everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. SHIELD agents looked at her and started to whisper. Just then Nick Fury came up the staircase from the workshop, oblivious to what had just happened, and said, "Hey-y-y, Pepper, how was work today?"

"GET OUT!" she screamed, putting her head in her hands as though it were about to explode.

More silence. Tony just stood there frozen in place with his mouth open, absolutely clueless about what it was that had set up this explosion of anger in his usually even-tempered and unflappable girlfriend. When it finally registered that he should do _something _to comfort her, he immediately stuck his foot in his mouth by joking "technically, Pepper, it's still my house until you agree to move in with me full time." Her hair now strands of Medusa-like, dripping serpents, she hissed "thatsss … IT!" like a cobra and slapped away his hand.

Nick Fury leaned down into his Nextel and murmured, "Agent Coulsen, could you please ask Black Widow to come upstairs. We have a little … um … situation."

Natalie, no, she corrected herself, Natasha, came up the staircase, took one look at her standing there in the fountain with her sopping wet suit and ruined statue, glared at the men, and stated, "I'll take care of this." She gently took Pepper by the hand and coaxed, "come with me Pepper. Let's get you cleaned up." Natalie took her hand and led her upstairs like a small child.

"Here, why don't you go into the bathroom to clean up and I'll find you something comfortable to wear," Natalie said. Pepper did as she was told and changed into the soft, comfortable knit outfit Natalie handed through the door.

"I can't take this anymore!" Pepper tearfully confided to Natalie. "I'm doing the best I can to be supportive, but, this … MESS. I physically cannot take the constant chaos anymore. I spend all day running Tony's company, then when I come home at night and need a little downtime I come home to … this. Either he's barricaded in his workshop, or he's off some dangerous mission and I don't know if he's going to live or die, or we've got an entire household of … Neanderthals … trashing the house and intruding on my personal space. Instead of taking care of ONE overgrown child, now I'm dealing with an entire superhero SQUADRON of narcissistic, emotionally regressed… men!"

Natalie regarded her with that spinx-like expression she used to mask what she was thinking. Finally she suggested, "Pepper, I've worked with these guys for years and they're great guys, but if you're going to be rubbing elbows with them all the time, you're going to have to set some rules."

"How can I do that?" Pepper asked.

"The same way you'd train a dog. Confine them to their kennel when you're not home, lock them out of rooms you don't want them going into, and reward them when they're being respectful," Natalie suggested.

"You're telling me to train a group of superheroes, some of the most brilliant and powerful creatures who ever walked the Earth, like dogs?" Pepper asked incredulously?

"Yes," replied Natalie. "That's exactly what I'm telling you. And if I were you, I'd start by confining their little science projects to the workshop and forbidding them to come into your personal space unless invited. There's no reason they can't bring that equipment in through the garage door."

Pepper hiccoughed and nodded. What Natalie was saying made sense. Just then she noticed that Tony had been standing silently in the doorway, his eyes downcast at his feet and hands sunk deep in his pockets as though he were lining up to be whipped.

Natalie excused herself and started to leave. Just before she exited the room, she pointedly looked at Tony and then turned to say "and if I were you, I'd also hire yourself a damned good personal assistant to handle a lot of this stuff for you. What you need is your own Pepper Potts."

"I'm still looking," Pepper replied. "It's too bad you weren't willing to keep the job."

Natalie smiled and then disappeared. They both knew Natalie was destined for more important things than running interference for the new CEO of Stark Industries.

"Pepper, I'm so sorry…" Tony said, slinking into the room like a cowed dog. "I was so busy preparing for this mission that I completely didn't notice you were upset."

"That's not news. You wouldn't notice somebody else's feelings if they knocked you over the head," she retorted sarcastically.

"I'm trying really hard," he continued, "but all of this is new to me. I just don't know how to keep you happy. Hug?"

Pepper nodded. Tony came over to where she was sitting on the bed and stood in front of her, bending down to kiss her forehead. Pepper wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his taut abdomen, feeling his muscles ripple underneath her cheek as she inhaled the heady scent of sweat and hydraulic fluid that always permeated his clothing whenever he was working on a project. She felt the tension melt out of her body as he stood there and massaged her back. Her neck was so tight it hurt! Pepper whimpered as he massaged out the knot.

Finally, Tony sat down next to her and took her face in his hands. "Pepper, it's almost time for us to depart. Are you going to be all right?"

"Don't go," she pleaded, nervously twirling her hair. "Can't we just stay here, just the two of us, and let the world take care of itself for one night?"

Tony looked deep into her eyes and murmured, "you know I can't do that, Pepper. People are relying on us. If we don't go take out this threat, a lot of people could die."

Pepper shut her eyes and sighed. "I know what you're doing is right, Tony, but sometimes I think life was easier when the worst thing you'd bring home at night was some bimbo to clear out the next morning. At least then they were gone and we were back to normal. Now … I never get to spend any time with you. I'm by your side, but it's as though you're not even here. I miss … I miss my best friend." A big, fat tear ran down her cheek and dripped onto her blouse.

Tony looked up at the ceiling and shut his eyes as though replaying scenes from a movie in his mind. "Pepper, if you could only see some of the things that I've seen, all the innocent people these monsters have hurt or maimed or killed, you'd understand. I love you and want you to be happy, but you're asking me to turn my back on all those people. They need me too." He slumped as though he were Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Tony," Pepper said, taking his face in her hands, "look at me. I'm not asking you to stop being Iron Man. It's just that, if you want me to be here for you, you're going to have to save a little piece of yourself for me, too." She watched the parade of emotions which crossed his face. Tony had long ago cultivated an "I'm too cool to react" persona to mask his feelings, but Pepper had learned to read the direction of his thoughts by the subtle facial tics which betrayed his feelings. "You can't be all things to all people, Tony Stark."

Tony's face lit up with that bright beautiful smile that still took her breath away. "That goes for you too, Miss Potts. I heard what Natalie said about your hiring another you to help you be you," he teased. "Where are we going to find a second Pepper Potts? Shall I ask the Board of Directors to set up a lab to clone you?"

"Oh, Tony," she sighed and shook her head. "We need to clone a few dozen of both of us if we're going to get through this."

Just then Nick Fury's voice bellowed up the stairs. "Okay, kiddies, time's up! It's show time! Let's get saddled up and outta here!"

"Go get 'em," Pepper stated with a confidence that she did not feel. She kissed him goodbye and couldn't help but notice the thought of action had perked him up like a dog about to chase a stick into a lake. Iron Man was an aphrodisiac to Tony Stark. They'd have great sex once he got back.

As Iron Man and the Avengers blasted out of the mansion, Pepper came downstairs and affixed her most intimidating stare into Nick Fury's one good eye. Staring Fury down like a gunslinger, she gestured out of the corner of her eye to one SHIELD agent and ordered, "you, go clean up that mess."

To another she snapped her fingers and barked, "you, get that ruined sculpture out of my sight before I hit someone over the head with it."

Fury opened his mouth to protest, but she silenced him, pointing at him the way you would order a dog to sit. "And YOU, we're going to have some RULES around here, starting … right … now!"


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

_AD 1975- Cambodia_

Seventeen-year-old Chu Peng excitedly squirmed as the plane coasted into Phenom Penh airport. This was the first time he was being allowed to accompany his aunt Jiang on a diplomatic mission. They were on their way to meet Prime Minister Saloth Sar (also known as Pol Pot) to secretly negotiate a treaty funneling Chinese and Soviet aid through Cambodia to communist freedom fighters in Vietnam.

Although relations were currently strained between Russia and China, both nations were in ideological agreement that the capitalist West must not be allowed to retain their foothold in Vietnam and had agreed to grant mutual aid to the struggling Vietnamese. Orphaned as a baby, ever since his grandfather had been publicly stripped of power in 1959 and exiled (Chu was barely two at the time), Aunt Jiang had raised him.

Aunt Jiang had trained him from an early age to use his stance, his manner, his demeanor and his speech to inspire the other youth in the Red Scarf movement to communist ideals. A former actor, his aunt had put her talents to good use promoting Revolutionary ideals first to the public, and later as the wife of their leader, Chairman Mao.

As young as five years old, Chu had gained approval from Aunt Jiang by encouraging his fellow Red Scarf youth members to report unauthorized bourgeois sentiments expressed by their teachers, neighbors or parents to the Party leaders. Aunt Jiang taught him to dispassionately watch as the names of collaborators were tortured out of the traitors.

Chu mulled over the satisfaction he had gained by watching his youth group members gain the upper hand as their families, their parents, teachers, and neighbors quaking in terror at the prospect of their own children betraying their most secret sentiments to the Red Guard. Depending upon the severity of the sentiment and number of collaborators, bourgeous sentiments were punishable by a range of punishments ranging from jail and torture to exile and death, but the children who informed were elevated to positions of importance and often praised by the most glorious party leaders themselves. Li Na may have been Aung Jiang and Uncle Mao's biological daughter, but Chu had made it a point to become their spiritual son in every way that mattered.

Chu Peng was a living example of the benefits of being an informant. His grandfather's insistence that Chairman Mao's five-year plans were causing great suffering amongst the peasants was causing great difficulties for the Party. Not just any dissenter, but a staunch proponent of the agrarian communism ideal Chairman Mao purportedly supported and also a decorated general who had won countless battles for the Revolution, his grandfather's increasing levels of public dissent on behalf of the ordinary comrade angered Uncle Mao. It was Aunt Jiang's idea. At eight years old, she had sent Chu to visit the old man, Peng Dehuai, to prison.

When his grandfather warned him Chairman Mao was inflicting great harm upon the nation with his pro-industrial planning, Chu had done exactly what his aunt requested and reported the traitorous sentiments to the Red Guard. Although television was a new medium in the world, he had sat there and dispassionately watched both on television and on camera as they tortured his grandfather 130 times, crushing his internal organs. Still … his grandfather never did break, insisting he was loyal to the Revolution. To Chu's enormous disappointment, the Red Guard did not put him to death. Being the grandson of a traitor to the Revolution was a black mark on Chu's otherwise spotless record which he would just assume have erased. Unfortunately, even disgraced, his grandfather still had too much support amongst the ordinary soldiers to risk murdering without a signed confession, so the broken old man was being allowed to finish out his remaining years in exile.

Chu drew his thoughts back to why he was being brought to Cambodia. In one more year, he would be old enough to join the Red Army as a junior officer. It was important that Chu eradicate the stigma of having Peng Dehuai, traitor of the Cultural Revolution, as a grandfather in order to gain favor with the Party. As there was no active "official" theater of war occurring in China at the moment, his Aunt thought studying under the tutelage of his hero, Prime Minister Sar (Pol Pot) would teach him important lessons.

A fly buzzed inside the waiting limousine. Chu hastily grabbed the fly and pulled off its wings, watching the disgusting creature crawl up the window before his aunt complained. Without a thought, he reached out and crushed the filthy insect, smearing its guts with his finger on the translucent window. "Do you think Prime Minister Sar will consent to my education?" he asked.

Aunt Jiang fondly gripped his chin and stated, "make sure you wash your hands before you shake hands. You wouldn't want to defile a hero like the Prime Minister."

"Of course, aunt Jiang," Chu replied. He looked out the window at countless peasants peacefully toiling in the rice paddies and wondered how Cambodia had been so successful at quelling the protestations of the masses and promoting an agrarian Utopia when the bourgeois in China was stirring up discontent. "Do you think the Prime Minister will agree to an internship?"

"The Prime Minister will do what I ask him to do," Jiang Qing stated cryptically, "or Chairman Mao will cut off aid."

Six hours later, Chu watched his aunt pull away in the limousine while the Prime Minister reassuringly gripped his shoulder. Having grown up with both his parents and then his grandfather missing, Chu enjoyed the male attention. "My closest friends call me Pol Pot," the Prime Minister had proudly stated, "so the nephew of Chairman Mao must call me that too.

"Thank you, sir," Chu politely replied. "I am looking forward to learning as much as I can. I am especially interested in learning how you've been so successful in achieving your goal of agrarian utopia while China is riddled with dissidents?"

"Ahhh," Pol Pot nodded, pleased. "I meet with my senior generals several times each week and arbitrate some of the more difficult cases where a citizen has been accused of bourgeois sympathies. The only good bourgeois is a dead bourgeois!" he laughed, with Chu laughing along with him.

"I wish uncle Mao had that attitude, although I suspect Aunt Jiang will have her way with him eventually and get him to crack down on the dissidents," Chu replied.

"Ahhh … we think alike, young Chu," Pol Pot stated. "Perhaps it would be wise for your uncle to, shall we say, look the other way while your aunt and her colleagues to attend to business? A wise leader avoids that which makes him contemptible and hated, but will allow others to act on his behalf to do that which is necessary and then deny all knowledge."

Several days later, Chu's new mentor and hero held court for his generals in a simple village shed in a remote area of Cambodia. Around them numerous peasants toiled contentedly in the fields, their dou li (conical straw hats) shielding their bodies from the tropical sun. Pol Pot was dressed in simple garb, not very different from that worn by the peasants, and sat on a straw mat. He clapped his hands and two Khmer Rouge soldiers dragged in a field worker. The field hand prostrated himself at the feet of Pol Pot, begging for mercy.

"What are the charges against this man?" Pol Pot asked. Chu sat silently behind him, watching and learning.

"Great leader," stated the Khmer Rouge soldier, beckoning a second field hand to come into the room, "this man has been accused of harboring bourgeois ideas and perpetrating dissent amongst the workers."

"What is the evidence?" Pol Pot asked.

The second field hand came in, trembling. "Great and powerful leader, I witnessed myself this man complaining to the other workers that you have enslaved the Cambodian people and then wrote those ideas down in this journal." The field hand proffered a small bound journal to Pol Pot.

"Please, comrade," Pol Pot smiled at him, "I am quite modest. I would prefer people not call me leader. If he believes in the cause, a cook could run Cambodia." Pol Pot thumbed through the journal, grunted, and handed the book to Chu. "Chu, what do you think?"

"I think these are the same type of sentiments that Chairman Mao has failed to stamp out in China, Sir," Chu observed.

"What is your verdict?" the Khmer Rouge soldier asked.

Pol Pot looked to Chu and smiled. "Young man, what would you say the verdict is?"

"Guilty, Sir," Chu replied. "This man is a traitor to the revolution."

"Then guilty it is," Pol Pot stated. The prisoner began to wail.

"What, Sir, shall the sentence be?" the second Khmer Rouge soldier inquired.

"Does he have any use to the Revolution other than field work?" Pol Pot inquired.

"No, sir, formerly he was a teacher at the university. Cambodia has no use for such bourgeois ideas."

"Well, then," Pol Pot replied, "since he is of no use to us anymore, then there is no gain if he lives and no loss if he dies. Death it is," he stated impassionately as though he were ordering his dinner.

Chu watched with admiration as one of the Khmer Rouge soldiers grabbed a piano wire from his pocket and, like a cobra strike, wrapped it around the prisoners' throat and pulled until it cut the prisoners neck all the way to the spine, nearly decapitating him. The second Khmer Rouge soldier grabbed the feet of the still-twitching body and unceremoniously dragged it outside where several other soldiers tossed the prisoner upon a cart like a sack of grain.

"Bullets are expensive," Pol Pot coldly noted to no one in particular. "Traitors don't deserve such luxuries."

The field hand who had reported the incident cowed and tried to back out the door. "Come, friend," Pol Pot coaxed, holding out his hand, "we need more believers such as yourself to help Cambodia achieve her agrarian utopian ideal. Please, shake my hand in friendship." Turning to the Khmer Rouge soldiers, who had returned, he asked them, "tell me, comrade, what position does this hero of the revolution hold?"

"He is a field worker, sir," answered one of the guards.

"Give this man and his entire family an extra ration of rice every day," stated Pol Pot, "and make him the overseer of the other workers in his camp. Loyalty must be rewarded."

Chu watched and observed the next several cases as Pol Pot repeated the ritual. Occasionally, Pol Pot would randomly grant clemency and only order torture, but most of the time the sentence was death. By the end of the session, the ox cart was piled high with the bodies of traitors and the Khmer Rouge hauled them off to be dumped in a local field to be used as fertilizer.

"A great leader cannot simply use the carrot of ideals or the love of his people to unroll his great plan," Pol Pot explained to him. "He must simultaneously use the stick of punishment for those who would betray him. All betrayal, no matter how small, must be eliminated and cut off at the root. If you allow evil, any evil, to flourish, soon your rice paddy will be full of weeds and your crop will wilt on the vine."

"We have this problem in China," Chu Peng stated. "How do you draw the line between those ideas that have merit and those that betray?"

"You surround yourself with trusted advisors," Pol Pot stated, "wise men who will whisper their doubts in your ear and then, no matter what you decide, back you. As for the rest, they may not speak out against you. Only those you trust can speak, and then only privately. Everything else is treason."

"My grandfather was once Chairman Maos advisor," Chu Peng said, "but then he betrayed him. He went to the public and began to complain about Chairman Mao's tactics."

"What, young Chu, do you think the punishment should be in such a case?" Pol Pot asked.

"Death, of course," Chu replied. "I have seen today that you have the courage to do what is needed that my uncle lacks."

"You are a wise boy," Pol Pot replied, wrapping his arm around one shoulder and giving him an affectionate hug. "It is very important that a leader be consistent in his treatment of traitors, all traitors, even those that were formerly close to him. It is not the promise of punishment that inspires your people to trust you, but also the _certainty _that if they betray you, the sentence will be carried out."

Over the next 6 weeks, Chu observed how, by dressing as an ordinary citizen and pretending to promote the rights of the lowliest worker, combined with a reputation for terror against traitors, Pol Pot inspired his minions to absolute loyalty. This was a most fruitful internship, Chu mused. He couldn't wait to report what he had learned to Aunt Jiang.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

_May 2011:_

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" blared in Tony Stark's helmet as the Avengers sped towards Senior General Than Shwe's military hidden in the mountainous border between Myanmar and Thailand. Tony had never been into classical music, but he had to admit Thor's taste in heavy-metal battle epics wasn't' bad.

Rhodey aka War Machine flew right beside him. Black Widow rode in Captain America's tricked-out red, white and blue Harrier Gr9A. The Hulk rode a rocket device resembling a jet ski. As for Thor, he was already waiting for them at the assigned rendezvous point. When you can travel as fast as a bolt of lightning, everybody else is always playing catch-up. Tony made a mental note to stick Thor under the scanner when they got back and explore the physics behind his unusual ability.

Nick Fury's voice growled over the console. "Okay, kids. Intel says Than Shwe's got the missiles hidden in a warehouse located in the center of the complex." A holographic image of the compound with the target highlighted appeared inside Tony's helmet. "Satellite recon shows three Type- 90 Twin-35mm antiaircraft guns here, here, and here." The three targets lit up on his screen.

"So nice of the Chinese to arm our fanatical little friend," Captain America retorted sarcastically.

"Our _friends_ the Chinese deny selling arms to Myanmar," Fury sarcastically replied, the word "friends" spat out as though it were dog crap.

"Yeh, right…" Captain America responded.

"JARVIS," Tony asked. "Access the Seraphim tactical satellite and run an infra-red heat signature scan inside all buildings"

"Yes, Sir," JARVIS replied. A moment later, "Sir, I'm registering a large number of heat signatures inside the building immediately adjacent to the target. I'm also picking up an unusual energy signature." The relevant information appeared on his screen.

"What is it?" Tony asked.

"I'm not sure, Sir," stated JARVIS. "I've never come across anything like it, and a search of all databases does not turn up any matches."

"Upload the image to Fury and see what he thinks of it," Tony directed JARVIS. "Hey, Fury, do you have any idea what the heck _that _is?"

"Never seen anything like it," Fury replied.

Just then, a crack of lightning appeared off to Tony's left and Thor appeared in the sky. "What's taking you guys?" Thor teased. "My stomach's growling." Lightning flashed once again and Thor disappeared. Although Thor's hammer enabled him to teleport between destinations faster than a bolt of lightning, he was no more capable of unaided flight than the rest of them.

"Let's tighten up this formation," Captain America ordered, "we're about to make our presence known to the enemy. Thor … it's time." Being the longest serving and most experienced member of the Avengers initiative, Fury usually assigned Steve (aka Captain America) to be team leader.

"Let me know when you're 5000 feet from target," Thor answered.

"Roger," Captain America replied. "3, 2, 1, NOW!"

Just as the Burmese sentries turned towards the noise of multiple jet engines appearing out of the mist, Thor appeared in their midst as a bolt of lightning zapped them unconscious with the electrostatic discharge.

"JARVIS, remind me to look into how he does that when I get back," Tony murmured as he and War Machine executed the complicated hand-thruster movement which enabled them to switch over from flying to landing.

The Harrier jet slowed in front of the building and executed its complicated vertical landing maneuver. As the canopy opened, Black Widow threw a miniaturized pulse grenade at two Burmese soldiers running at the plane while leaping, cat like, out of the plane. The Hulk coasted to a stop in his jet-ski while Iron Man and War Machine floated down to the ground with a thunk.

Captain America grabbed his iron-vibranium shield and ordered, "Hulk, we need you to break down that door."

"Y-e-e-s-s," the Hulk grunted and lumbered over to the steel door. In his Hulk guise, Bruce Banner was a creature of few words. Wham, wham, wham, they were in.

A group of Burmese soldiers rushed towards them from inside the building. The Hulk picked one up and threw him, bowling alley style, into the remaining soldiers, knocking them to the ground. Black Widow threw another pulse grenade, rendering them unconscious. Enemy casualties during a mission were inevitable, but the Avengers had agreed long ago they would use non-lethal force unless absolutely necessary. They were superheroes, not butchers!

"Mr. Stark," JARVIS interrupted. "My sensors show that that energy signature I detected earlier has entered the building. Also, the human heat signatures are converging upon the building."

"Thanks, JARVIS," Tony replied. "Please keep me updated." Over his intercom Tony shouted, "Kids … it looks like we're about to have company!"

A Burmese soldier leapt out of a closet at Black Widow as they walked past. He watched her execute her signature spinning takedown that combined a swing-dance-twirl around the body of her target with a judo gatame to render the guard unconscious.

"Nice job," he murmured. Tony was totally committed to Pepper, but he had to admit he enjoyed watching the cat like Black Widow in action. Maybe he could get her to teach Pepper a few moves? Images of Pepper wrestling him helplessly to the floor of his boxing ring and then doing erotic things to his body interrupted his concentration.

WHAM! A Burmese guard whacked him with a steel pipe.

"Pay attention, Iron Man!" Captain America ordered.

As soon as the Hulk finished pounding down the next door, War Machine fired a smoke grenade into the next room for cover as they all rushed inside.

"Mr. Stark," JARVIS stated. "My sensors show that unusual heat signature is in this room."

Smoke made visibility poor as the superheroes rushed inside. As the smoke began to clear, they saw two steel flatbed trucks carrying large … "Pipes?" Thor asked, puzzled. "They're empty steel pipes. Where the f**k are the missiles?"

"Very astute observation," a sinister voice hissed from the murk. "Now!"

Tony started to think to himself, "now … what," but the sound of steel blast doors sliding down over the doorway they had just punched through and blocking their escape. "It's a trap!" he shouted.

"Sir, my sensors show the heat signatures are also in the room," JARVIS stated.

"At last we meet, Tony Stark," the sinister voice continued. Tony stood there, momentarily frozen as a garishly robed figure walked, no, floated towards their position. Part of Tony's mind wondered how the robed man could float without any sign of pulse reactor technology. "I have so been looking forward to meeting you." The robed figure turned towards his left and shouted, "Attack!"

Dozens of armed soldiers swarmed on their position like a swarm of killer bees. So much for non-lethal combat, Tony thought. He blasted one after the other with his hand-pulse weapons while War Machine blasted them with his machine gun.

"Tony," War Machine shouted, "cover me while I go after that circus freak!"

Tony punched one guard into the wall and then pulsed two shots at the guards standing on either side of the robed figure. War Machine walked towards the robed figure, but the robed figure stretched out his hand and somehow lifted him off the ground as though Rhodey were trapped on a fishing line. The robed figure laughed. Part of Tony's mind filed the image away in his mental "research physics later" folder while another part focused on knocking the daylights out of the two guards who rushed at him.

The Hulk concentrated his efforts on bashing down the steel blast doors that were blocking their escape. Wham, wham, wham, he pounded. Black Widow was busy taking down 6 guards while Thor teleported outside and back again in a bolt of lightning.

"I don't see another way out," Thor yelled as he rematerialized in their midst. Suddenly, the robed figure stretched out his other hand and Thor's lightning bolts began some sort of feedback loop on itself, trapping him in his own electromagnetic field.

Captain America pulled out his shield, took aim, and threw it at the robed figure. The robed figure reached his hands towards the shield and it … shattered. The Avengers stood there, dumbstruck. "That's impossible," Captain American stated in disbelief. "Nothing can break that shield."

"That's where you are wrong, little superhero," the robed figure hissed. "Your puny weapons are no match for me!"

Tony noticed that when the robed figure had turned to blast Captain America's shield, he had released War Machine and Thor from whatever power he had been using to hold them. "Good," he noted to himself. Obviously wielding whatever technology it was the robed figure possessed required a degree of concentration. He could use that.

"Hulk," he shouted. "We need you to make a new door!" The gigantic green figure grunted acknowledgement and lurched over towards one of the walls. Tony looked to his side and saw both War Machine and Thor were recovering and getting back on their feet.

As Captain America recovered from his momentary disbelief, he barked orders at the team. Black Widow threw one of her larger electromagnetic pulse grenades at the robed figure while Captain America picked up one of the guns dropped by the Burmese soldiers and fired at him. Tony moved into position behind the robed figure while War Machine fired a miniaturized RX missile at him. An opening to the outside was beginning to form in the wall the Hulk was smashing away at.

Using the distraction the Captain had created, Thor rushed in with his war hammer and swung it with all his might. The robed figure reached threw out both his hands and stopped the hammer dead in its tracks. It didn't explode as Captain America's shield had, but it didn't move any further, either.

Tony noticed that holding Thor's hammer in suspension appeared to require every bit of the robed figures concentration. Taking his opportunity, he shouted, "everybody down!" He spun and fired his on-shot laser weapon, cutting everything in the room above 3 feet tall in half. The robed figure screamed as though in agonizing pain and released Thor's hammer.

"Do you think you can hurt me, Tony Stark" the figure hissed as he straightened up, unharmed.

Tony filed the image away in his mental "research the physics later" folder. He fired his pulse weapon, but the figure swung his hands around as though he were doing a roundhouse block and deflected the pulse. Another "research physics later" topic.

All of a sudden the robed figure stretched out his hand and lifted him off the ground, making a crushing motion with his fist. Tony screamed as his armor began crushing into his body like a ball of tin foil. He felt some force attempting to rip his arc reactor out of his chest. JARVIS went offline and he could hear the hydraulics in his suit whine as they resisted and came apart. His chest constricted and several ribs snapped as the robed figure shrieked with pleasure, "I can crush you like a bug!"

As Tony slid towards unconsciousness, he noticed Black Widow circling around behind the figure and spring at him like a black panther. He stayed conscious just long enough to see the Hulk come from the other side like a giant green steamroller and bash the crap out of the robed man before he dropped Tony unceremoniously to the floor.

He faded in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he thought he was back in the cave, back in Afghanistan.


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

_May 2011:_

"Tony, stay with us," he heard a female voice say from far away.

"Pepper?" he moaned. The voice didn't sound like Pepper, but it was reassuring. Natalie?

"We've got to get him to a doctor!"

He hurt. Something … loud … a jet engine … harrier jet … roared in his ears and rattled his broken body. The pain was excruciating. He couldn't breathe. Tony slid back into the darkness.

_Later…_

"Can you hear me?" he heard a voice say.

"Rhodey?" he murmured.

"Tony, you're badly injured," Rhodey said. "They're about to wheel you into surgery. You're going to be okay."

"No doctors," Tony murmured. He slid back into unconsciousness.

_Later…_

Tony's mind registered a faint beep-beep-beep in the distance. For a long time he focused on the reassuring noise. It took his mind off the cloud of pain which permeated his entire body.

Images of the robed figure crushing him like a beer can slipped into his mind and he heard the beep-beep-beep speed up. As he clawed his way towards consciousness, he could feel the crushing pain in his chest. He let go and slid once more into the merciful darkness.

_Later…_

His mind recognized people talking.

"What happened," he heard a woman's voice say. "Is he going to be okay?" That was Peppers voice.

"He's been very badly injured," a male voice said. "He's got 7 broken ribs, a broken sternum, and head injuries. It looks like the creature tried to rip the arc reactor out of his chest."

"Will he make it?" Pepper asked. It sounded as though she was crying. "Is his arc reactor still functioning? He can't make it without that."

"We think he's going to pull through, but it's going to take time," the mail voice stated. "The arc reactor has been heavily damaged, as has the housing which surrounds it. We uploaded scans taken by JARVIS when Mr. Stark first returned from Afghanistan to recreate the original battery-compatible electromagnet created by Dr. Yinsen."

"You mean … you've got him hooked up to a car battery right now?" Pepper asked. His mind registered the panic in her voice.

"It's a little more sophisticated than a car battery," the man continued, "but, yeah, it's basically just a battery and a magnet."

Tony moaned and fought his way towards consciousness.

"Tony, can you hear me?" he heard Pepper say.

"Pepper," he whispered.

Pain washed over him in waves as he felt the crushing pain in his chest. He let go and sank beneath the surface once more.

_Later…_

"Here's the arc reactor from my suit. Is there any way you can use it to save him," he heard a male voice, Rhodey, ask.

"Theoretically, yes," the male voice he had begun to think of as "doctor" stated. "Unfortunately, the only person who understands this technology is laying unconscious in that bed. The housing in his chest is damaged and your reactor doesn't have the connections necessary to plug it into his chest socket."

Tony heard another voice, Peppers. "That arc reactor is made of palladium. It's toxic. Long term exposure nearly killed him the last time he used one."

"Pepper, it's all we have," Rhodey said. "It's a temporary solution. The electromagnet will only keep him alive a week or so. Palladium won't kill him for six months."

Pepper was silent for a long time before saying, "some of the engineers who helped Obediah Stane build his suit still work for Stark Industries. They don't know how to build arc reactor technology, but they _did _help Obediah build the housing which he used to plug Tony's chest reactor it into the Iron Monger suit. It was an earlier, but compatible version of what Tony is using for a socket now. I'll see if they can help."

"Pepper…" Tony whispered. He felt her touch his face. He fought his way out of the murky sea, but as he neared the surface the pain washed over his body. It was too much. He let go and slid back down into the depths.

_Later…_

"We can reverse-engineer a new power socket to accept the War Machine power supply," Tony heard an unknown male voice say. "However, modifying the War Machine arc reactor to fit inside Tony's chest is impossible."

"Dr. Nyi, all I want to know is can you make Rhodey's reactor work?" Pepper said. Now he had a name. Frank Nyi, chief engineer in charge of Stark Industries main arc reactor.

"Yes … and no," Dr. Nyi said. "I can retrofit an adaptor to repair the broken socket and link it to the War Machine arc reactor, but it's not going to fit inside his chest."

"What are you saying," he heard Pepper say.

"The War Machine arc reactor is a lot less compact than Mr. Starks reactor because it was never designed to fit inside the human body," Dr. Nyi stated. "It's also not made entirely of the same materials."

"What we're afraid of is rejection, Miss Potts," the doctor interrupted. "If we simply remove the existing socket and stick in a foreign object, Mr. Stark could die. We don't know how his body survived the trauma of the first implantation, but if we change things, we will kill him."

"Tony Stark was able to create this thing in a cave … with parts from a bunch of old missiles!" he heard Pepper exclaim. "Why can't you use the resources of Stark Industries to do the same thing?"

"I'm not Tony Stark," he heard Dr. Nyi say, his voice laced with regret. "The best I can do, Miss Potts, is fashion a bandaid that will work long enough for Tony to recover and fix the problem himself."

"Thank you, Dr. Nyi," Pepper stated. "Please get on it right away, top priority."

"Yes, Maam."

So, his arc reactor was damaged and he was hooked up to a primitive electromagnet. No wonder he felt like crap! Tony drifted between the states of awake and unconsciousness, not quite able to go the final mile to wake up, but alert enough to understand what was going on around him. Why couldn't he wake up?

"Miss Potts," the doctors said, "we have a more pressing problem."

"What is that, doctor?" she replied.

"Before we got that temporary electromagnet working, some of the pieces of shrapnel floating around Mr. Starks body pierced his pericardium and worked their way into his left ventricle," the doctor stated. "If we don't remove the particles, they could kill him."

"Can you remove them?" Pepper asked. He could hear the worry in her voice.

"We'll need to bring him back in for surgery to do that," the doctor stated. "He's very weak. We don't know if he'd survive."

"And if we _don't _do the surgery?" Pepper asked.

"He'll die anyways."

He heard Pepper gasp and begin to cry. "Tony should make that decision. When will he wake up?"

"We're keeping him in a medically-induced coma to minimize the trauma from his injuries," the doctor said. "If we taper off the medication, he should regain consciousness in a couple of hours."

"Make it so," Pepper quietly ordered.

Tony was able to hear all of this, but it exhausted him. They must have him on some great drugs, he thought. Although pain still permeated his body, it was more diffused. Two hours … he'd be able to wake up in two hours. Tony let go and drifted off to sleep.

_Later…_

"Tony?" He felt her hand in his. She was caressing his face.

"Pepper…" he murmured.

"Can you hear me?" she asked.

"Mmmm … been hearing you for the last few hours," he replied. "Couldn't speak."

"Your arc reactors been badly damaged," she said. "Dr. Nyi from the Arc Reactor Lab has come up with a patch to make Rhodey's reactor compatible with your chest-socket, but it's not a permanent fix."

"Do it…" he stated

"It won't fit inside the existing socket," she continued. "You'll have to carry it around in a pouch or something."

"Don't worry," he said, smiling weakly. "That won't last long. I'll make a new one."

"Tony," she said, "we've got a bigger problem. Before they got the temporary magnet in place, some shrapnel entered the left ventricle of your heart. If they don't remove it, it will kill you."

"What else is new?" he replied. "I heard. Tell them to go ahead and take it out."

"But … the doctor said you may be too weak to survive the surgery," she said. "You could die!" Pepper started to cry.

Tony weakly moved his hand towards her cheek. By god, it felt like lead! "If I was meant to die, I would have died long ago. Don't worry … I'll pull through."

Pepper sniffled and nodded.

God, he felt tired. "So tired," he murmured.

"Sleep…" Pepper soothed as she caressed his hair. "When you wake up, it will all be over."

_Later…_

"So, you're the energizer bunny now, swapping out batteries?"

"Fury!" Tony mumbled, opening his eyes to see Nick Fury's one good eye staring at him. The look of concern on Fury's face betrayed the I'm-too-badass-to-be-worried tone of his voice.

"You'll be happy to learn that you've got 3 less pieces of shrapnel floating around your chest right now, Mr. Stark," Fury wisecracked. "If you keep this up, pretty soon you won't need to wear that damned flashlight in your chest anymore."

"Ha – Mmmmph!" Tony both laughed and cried out in pain. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts."

"Take it easy on him, Fury," Pepper said. She was sitting on the other side of his bed. "Or I swear to God I'll kick you out of here."

"What happened? With the mission, I mean," Tony inquired, his brain still fuzzy from the pain medication. "Is everybody okay?"

"Rhodey suffered a broken leg and cracked skull. They've released him, but he's been hobbling up and down the hallways bugging the crap out of the nurses about you," Fury said. "Thor got pretty banged up. Whatever tech that Mandarin guy was using, it used Thor's own electromagnetic discharge against him. It's going to take him a while for him to re-grow his hair."

"Mandarin?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, that's what the Burmese guards we interrogated called him," Fury continued. "They're terrified of him. Claim he's some sort of Asian sorcerer."

"The only difference between technology and magic is the level of technological sophistication of the observer," Tony quoted Arthur C. Clark. "From where I stood, it looked like he was harnessing an unknown energy source and channeling it through a device in his hands."

Fury gave him a look of surprise. "Do you have any idea what this power source was?"

"No," he stated. "But by the way Thor was able to temporarily hold him at bay with his hammer, I suspect the power sources may be similar."

"Can you reverse engineer it?" Fury asked.

"Get me a piece of that technology, and with it I'll retro-engineer the world," Tony weakly replied. "Ouch! Pepper, I think my pain medication is wearing off."

"I'll get the nurse," she replied. "You! Are done. Out!" she said to Fury. Fury didn't argue with her. He'd recently learned the hard way that Pepper Potts could go toe-to-toe with the nastiest, most hardened drill sergeant.

"Nick?" Tony asked before Pepper shoved him out the door. "How are the others?"

"They're okay, although the Captain is pretty pissed off about losing his shield," Fury replied.

"Tell him I'll make him a new one," Tony stated. Fury shut the door.

"Sleep…" Pepper said, caressing his cheek with the back of her hand. "The more you rest, the sooner you can get back on your feet."

He let go and drifted back to sleep.


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

_June 2011:_

Tony was driving her nuts!

Five weeks had passed since the whole Myanmar fiasco and Tony had been ordered to stay in bed until the new socket they had surgically implanted into his chest fully healed. With 7 cracked ribs and a broken sternum, Tony didn't have a whole heck of a lot of bone mass left to support the thing. One bump and Tonys' ribcage would collapse like a slinky.

At first he had complied, due more to the morphine drip which kept him in a semi-unconscious state rather than any effort on his part to comply with the doctors' orders. Unfortunately, Tony had developed respiratory and immune-suppression problems and they'd had to switch him over to Demerol. The Demerol kept him just pain-free enough that he was itching to start work on his next generation arc reactor, but not enough to be in a good mood. To put it bluntly, for the past week and a half, Tony had been nothing but a grumpy, whiney pain in the ass!

Various SHIELD personnel flitted through the mansion like ghosts, obediently entering and exiting through the garage entrance and only intruding upon the living areas when absolutely necessary. Pepper looked at the list of rules she had conspicuously posted numerous places around the house and grunted with satisfaction. Natalie had given good advice. The boys had been good today. She would bring them down some dog treats, ahem, refreshments later and reward them for their good behavior. Tony, on the other hand, she wanted to throttle.

She had one of the Stark vice presidents covering some of her more routine duties as CEO of Stark Industries, but she was too crucial to simply take a leave of absence to babysit Tony and his new friends. She had left a very competent nurse in charge, but there was no diverting Tony from a plan once he set his mind to it. She had received a frantic phone call right in the middle of the Board of Directors meeting informing her Mr. Stark had gone down into his workshop and locked her out.

Pepper descended the stairs just in time to observe Tony, IV's and the pouch carrying Rhodey's temporary arc reactor wheeling behind him, bending over to help Dr. Nyi and several SHIELD scientists work on some piece of Stark tech.

"What the HELLdo you think you are doing, Tony Stark?" Pepper bellowed, red flushing her cheeks.

SHIELD agent heads popped up from behind various workstations like prairie dogs, eyes wide, nostrils flared, stopping their work to silently regard the situation unfolding before their eyes. You didn't cross Pepper Potts, the agents had learned.

"Um, ah, Pepper," he stammered like a caught child doing something naughty, "I, um, I'm showing Dr. Nyi the specs for the new arc reactor that's going to replace this thing," he continued, gesturing to the pouch and wrinkling up his nose as if smelling something distasteful.

"You are supposed to be in bed!" Pepper retorted. "B-E-D, bed! What part of bed didn't you understand?"

"Pepper, I've been stuck in that bed for over six weeks and I'm sick of it," Tony replied, squaring his shoulders and leveling his most stubborn you're-not-the-boss-of-me stare at her. "The doctor said the arc reactor socket is healing nicely and I should be ready to return to work in a few weeks."

"A few WEEKS, Tony, not today," she said, the pitch of her voice rising. "Today … you are supposed to be in BED!"

"I feel fine, Pepper," Tony stated, stubbornly squaring his jaw. "I'm sick of staying in bed!"

Clapping her hands above her head, Pepper announced to the SHIELD agents, "Boys, could you give Tony and I a little private time?" She dismissively waved her hand towards the staircase and continued, "JARVIS, please have Butterfingers serve the boys those snacks I prepared up in the main kitchen." The SHIELD scientists instantly complied.

Tony's intense dark eyes defiantly regarded her as he defiantly turned his back to her and bent down to finish whatever adjustment he had been making to the equipment. "I'm fine, Pepper. I'm going to get back to work, now."

"JARVIS," Pepper called out, refusing to play this game. "Get Nick Fury on the line."

"Yes, Miss Potts," JARVIS replied. "Right away."

"I thought you didn't like Nick Fury," Tony said.

"Nick and I have come to an … _understanding_," Pepper replied.

"What can I do for you, Pepper?" Nick called as his face appeared on the video feed.

"Nick," Pepper called out, "we've got a little situation here. Tony's out of bed and in the workshop … working."

"How can I help?" Nick inquired, an amused glint appearing in his one good eye as he suppressed a smirk.

"I'd like your SHIELD agents to remove every tool and piece of equipment from his workshop, including Butterfingers," stated Pepper.

"You can't do that !" Tony exploded. "They're MY tools!"

"Actually, Tony, you said that when I moved in with you full time, it would be my house too. Well, I moved in. My apartment is gone." Pepper leveled her most no-nonsense go-ahead-and-make-my-day glare at him.

"You've moved in with me? Full time? Really?" Tony asked in disbelief, a smile lighting up his face. "What changed your mind?"

"You did," she replied. "Or actually, nearly losing you … twice. Life's too damn short, Tony."

Tony moved towards her and embraced her. "Pepper, I'm so glad…"

"Save it for the honeymoon, you two!" the forgotten Nick Fury cracked from the video feed. "Pepper, let me know if you need anything else." The screen went dark.

As they locked together in the elevator back up to the bedroom floor, JARVIS chirped in. "Miss Potts, what should I do about the SHIELD scientists in the kitchen?"

"Tell them they can go back to work now," Pepper replied. "Tony is going to bed like a good boy, right Tony?" she asked.

"Mmmmm…" he moaned, nibbling on her neck. "I think I'm going to like being confined to bed."


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

_July, 2011:_

"Okay, JARVIS, start scan … now."

Tony Stark intently watched the computer screen as JARVIS ran the energy scan down the length of Donald Blake's body. While in human form, Donald (aka Thor) was a rather ordinary looking physician. "I don't get it … everything looks perfectly normal," he stated, frustrated because he'd been unable to discover why Donald Blake, and only Donald Blake, was able to lift Mjolnir, the rather crude-looking hammer which transformed the mild-mannered Blake into the mighty Thor.

"You're not the first person to try to figure this out, you know," Blake stated. Although he had been in his Thor guise during the entire Myanmar/Mandarin cluster-fuck, Blake was still sporting noticeably singed hair and eyebrows.

"I don't get it," Tony said, scratching his head. "I'm definitely reading the energy signature when you pick up Mjolnir, but I can't figure out why the device works for you, and only you. What does it feel like when you transform?"

"It's as though I step aside and somebody else is using my body," Blake stated. "I can observe what's happening and the train of thought of this other being while he's thinking, but I have no control over what my body is doing. I can't access any thoughts or memories that aren't part of whatever is going on at the moment. It's as if I'm a computer chip processing a stream of data."

Tony shuddered. "I don't know how you do it, lift that thing knowing somebody else is going to be in charge. Lift it again. I want to see what happens."

Blake lifted the hammer. Tony's hair stood on end as static electricity permeated the air and a Tesla coil like aura surrounded Blake. He watched intently as the scanner revealed an energy surge going through Blake's body and surround him momentarily before a blue light caused the transformation which turned him into his Thor alter-ego. The short-tempered Thor was much more difficult to deal with than the affable Donald Blake, but Tony and Thor had reached an understanding after Myanmar. Faced with the prospect of facing down the Mandarin in the near future, Thor had somewhat reluctantly consented to Tony's poking and prodding.

"Thor," Tony asked, "how much of what goes on while you are in your Donald Blake guise do you remember?"

"Nothing."

"Do you have any awareness of what he's thinking while you inhabit his body?"

"No." Thor was a man of few words when in his Thor-mode.

"Do you have any awareness of Blake at all?"

"I'm aware there is another consciousness inside my head, but it's as though it's off to the side," Thor replied.

"Have you ever tried to access Blake's thoughts?"

"Why would I?" Thor inquired.

"Could you try it now?" Tony requested.

Thor's gaze turned inward as he concentrated . "I got nothing."

JARVIS chipped in, "Sir, when Thor attempted to communicate with his Donald Blake personality, I detected an unusual energy signature in his brain similar to the scans I picked up when he was battling the Mandarin."

"Hmmm…" Tony murmured, his curiosity intensely aroused. "Show me on screen 4." Thor came over and stared intently on the screen behind him as a PET scan showed an unusual ring of energy surrounding certain areas of Thor's brain. "It's almost as though something is happening to deliberately lock out those areas of the brain. Display holographically." A three dimensional image of Thor's brain filled the room.

"If we switch over to an EEG, you'll see the neuro-electric discharge heads up these pathways and stops when it hits energy ring surrounding that part of the brain," JARVIS observed.

Tony manipulated the hologram to observe the tiny electrochemical impulses reach the areas of the brain that were barricaded, build up, and then dissolve. "Now show me what happened when the Mandarin tied him in that feedback loop," Tony ordered.

JARVIS showed a similar energy ring appear surrounding Thor's body moments after the Mandarin had ringed his body with his own electric discharge and keep the unknown energy source from reaching his body. Had it not done so, Thor would be dead right now. He'd gotten singed, which meant the shield needed time to activate, but it was most definitely some kind of energy shield.

"Do you have any energy matches for the phenomenon?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Sir. The energy signature matches both Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, and Megingjord, his Belt of Strength," JARVIS replied. "Whatever power source they are using, it is the same."

Thor looked down at the large iron belt which surrounded his waist. "Hmmm…" he grunted.

"JARVIS, hack into the Department of Defense computer and see if you find any matches to whatever power source Thor is using," Tony stated. "Let me know if you find a match. And run the Mandarin while you're at it."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS replied. "Sir, Miss Potts has called down to inform you lunch is ready. Butterfingers has prepared sandwiches for both you and Thor in the main kitchen."

Tony winked at Thor. "Her majesty has invited you upstairs to the castle for lunch. Shall we go?"

Thor slapped Tony on the back and roared with laughter. "Good, strong woman. Like Valkyrie. Good for Iron Man!"

Tony laughed in return. "Yes, good strong woman. I like."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Deep inside the Cheyenne Mountain air force base, a red flag tripped on a Department of Defense computer and relayed the information to Sergeant Walter Davis. He typed the command to trace the inquiry back to the IP address and then picked up the phone. "Sir, we have a hit…"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony Stark stared as the air force Colonel and a civilian sat down across the table. Nick Fury had been furious JARVIS had hacked into the Department of Defense computer (via SHIELD's network, no less!) and set off a firestorm of questioning. Tony had been reluctant to allow the military into his workshop, but Fury insisted the air force had answers for him.

"I'm Colonel Samantha Carter," the female air force officer stated, shaking his hand, "and this is Dr. Paul Lee. I believe we each possess information that would benefit the others research."

"Surprise me," Tony cracked, treating the situation with the same flippant disrespect he would any other government inquiry into his doings. He pretended not to notice Fury's glare.

"You first," Colonel Carter stated.

"I insist, ladies first," Tony replied. He watched amused as the Colonel suppressed an expression of annoyance on her rather attractive face. It was obvious that Fury had given her a heads-up that Tony could be a handful.

"Before we discuss anything, I need you to sign this secrecy agreement swearing that you won't disclose anything you learn here today to any person, ever," the Colonel said. "What I am about to tell you relates to one of the most closely guarded secrets on the planet."

"I'm not signing anything, OUCH!" Tony retorted, cut off as Fury grabbed his shoulder in a vice-like grip and squeezed.

"She has answers," Fury hissed. "Sign the goddamned forms or I swear to god I'll drive a Bradley tank up to your front door and take away all your toys!"

"What's this about if I ever talk about anything I'll go to jail? I don't like this form. Can I have legal look over it?" Tony complained.

"SIGN THE GODDAMNED FORMS!" Fury bellowed. Tony reluctantly complied.

Colonel Carter turned to Dr. Lee and nodded. Placing his briefcase onto the table, Dr. Lee stated, "we believe this is the same technology this Mandarin fellow is using." He opened the suitcase and pulled out what appeared to be a gold bracelet with a large red jewel on a palm extension. The palm extension vaguely resembled an ornate version of the flight stabilizers on his Iron Man suit.

"What is it?" Tony asked.

"This is a G'Ould hand device," Dr. Lee said. "It is used to create an energy wave which can either incapacitate or kill an opponent."

Tony's interest piqued like a kid who had just walked into a candy shop. "What's its power source?"

"The device uses a rare element called naquidah to power it," continued Dr. Lee.

"Never heard of it," Tony replied.

"This technology is not from here," stated Colonel Carter.

"Where is it from?" he asked.

"That's classified," she replied.

Seeing the glare in Fury's one good eye, Tony suppressed the smart retort he had been about to give. "What is this?" he asked. "One of those crackpot Area 51 spaceship conspiracy theories?"

"That's classified," the Colonel stated cryptically.

"How am I supposed to help you out if I don't know anything?" he asked with frustration.

"We are sharing this information on a need-to-know basis," stated Colonel Carter. "Based on what Mr. Fury has told us, the only thing you need to know is that we have a piece of the same technology this Mandarin is using and are willing to give you an hour to examine it so you can reverse-engineer something to defeat him."

"But I need to know!" Tony semi-whined, eager to get his hands on the pretty shiny gauntlet sitting on the table in front of him and fire up the scanner.

"You need to know what I decide you need to know," Colonel Carter replied. Her smile was friendly, but the steel in her blue eyes stopped Tony dead in his tracks. Tony had the eerie sensation Colonel Carter and Pepper (correction the _new _Pepper, Pepper the CEO and Valkyrie) would get along just fine.

"Okay," he gulped. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to run this device through your scanner over there," Colonel Carter stated, nodding towards the scanner on the edge of the room. "I assume it is hooked up to the AI which collected the data you exchanged with our database when it hacked into our mainframe."

"Don't you have your own scanners?" Tony asked.

"We believe your AI may have picked up on a few anomalies we previously have been unable to detect," she stated. "We'd like to compare the scans your AI does of this device to ours. In return, you will be allowed to keep the data and use it to engineer a solution to your Mandarin problem."

"Can I keep the gauntlet," he asked.

"No," she stated firmly. It was clear from the smile which reached all the way to her eyes that this Colonel Carter was clearly amused by his curiosity.

"JARVIS, fire up the scanner," he said. Nodding to Dr. Lee, he continued, "put the device on that table and we'll do an initial scan." Blue-green laser imagers scanned the gauntlet.

"Sir, the device indeed appears to have similar properties as the power signature I detected being used by the Mandarin," JARVIS stated. "If you test-fire it, I will be able to do a more detailed analysis."

Tony turned to Dr. Lee and requested, "fire away."

"Actually, Mr. Stark, Colonel Carter will demonstrate the device for you," Dr. Lee stated. "I am unable to wield it. Only people with certain … properties can use this technology."

"Sir, I am picking up traces of the same element which powers the hand device in Colonel Carter's body," JARVIS stated.

Colonel Carter smiled and said, "very perceptive, JARVIS. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance."

"The pleasure is mine, Colonel Carter," JARVIS replied. Tony suppressed a twinge of annoyance. First Pepper, then Natalie, now the Colonel. JARVIS had a habit of taking a liking to female authority figures.

Colonel Carter removed her dress blue uniform jacket, rolled up her sleeve, and placed the gauntlet onto her hand. "Where would you like me to aim?"

"Over there," Tony said, pointing to a freestanding concrete wall he had specifically installed in the workshop for the purpose of testing the firepower of his suit. "Ready, aim, fire!"

He noticed Colonel Carter concentrate fairly intensely before she was rewarded by a clearish-red heat glow from the device. So … the technology _did _require concentration! He could see the device visually disturbed the air when it did whatever it was that it did, but it was more subtle than the brilliant white repulsor technology in his suit. After a few seconds, the concrete wall began to glow before Colonel Carter turned the device off.

"I can state with 97.3% certainty that this device utilizes the same power source as the technology used by the Mandarin," JARVIS stated.

"Does it match the technology used by Thor?" Tony asked.

"No," JARVIS said. "Although power output from each technology appears to be sufficiently powerful to negate the other, the power signatures are markedly different."

"Mr. Fury," Colonel Carter inquired, "has Thor arrived yet? I am really looking forward to meeting him."

"Not yet, Colonel," Nick stated, "Thor is scheduled to arrive in 8 minutes."

"JARVIS, show me the atomic structure of the fuel," Tony requested. A three dimensional image of naquidah filled the room.

"That's amazing," Colonel Carter blurted. "And this is entirely Earth-based technology?"

"What?" he asked.

"Sorry," she replied, looking a bit sheepish. "That information is classified."

"Sir, my calculations indicate with 93% certainty that you will be able to synthesize this element using the same process you used to synthesize the Starkium," JARVIS stated.

"WHAT? You can _synthasize_ this element?" Dr. Lee exclaimed. "Do you know what that _means _for this planet?"

"Why do you all keep saying _this planet_," Tony inquired. "What other planet would we be talking about?"

Dr. Lee and Colonel Carter both looked at each other and stated in unison, "that's classified."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony absent-mindedly drummed his fingers on the new arc reactor he'd installed into his chest last week. Colonel Carter, Dr. Lee and JARVIS were excitedly going over test data from JARVIS's scan of the power source, a mineral called naquidah, which JARVIS felt they could synthesize. Although the information was supposed to be classified (that's what he was told every time he asked a direct question), in their excited banter they let clues slip. Tony deliberately faded back and pretended to be a fly on the wall.

What he'd gathered so far was that the golden hand-held device was from an alien race which wasn't very friendly, Colonel Carter had frequently locked horns with these aliens, and a super-secret agency of the government (even _more_ super-secret than SHIELD) regularly traded with a second race of aliens which had been able to synthesize a suitable, though highly unstable, version of the mineral which powered the device.

He'd been apprised when he joined SHIELD that there were "unusual" members, but this was the first time it truly dawned upon him how big the superhero club really was. Furthermore, whoever this Carter chick was, the technical information she had rattling around in her brain made Tony Stark look stupid.

Nick Fury's Nextel beeped. He leaned in to listen, then announced, "Thor's on his way in." Moments later JARVIS announced, "welcome, Thor."

Tony watched as Colonel Carter and Dr. Lee stopped what they were doing and approached Thor as though he were a ghost.

"It's unbelievable," Dr. Lee stammered.

"Is it really you?" Colonel Carter asked Thor.

"The resemblance is uncanny," Dr. Lee continued.

"He said that at one time the Asgard had taken human form and lived among our race," Carter continued, "but I didn't realize he meant it literally. I always thought the projection was just a made up image. Thor?" she asked, gently holding out her hand, "do you have any memories of me?"

Thor looked at the both of them as though they were crazy people and said, "who the hell are you?"

Colonel Carters' eyes looked moist. "Thor, we've met, though I suspect the reason you don't remember me is because from your perspective, it hasn't happened yet. We're friends."

Thor eyed her warily, but mumbled, "stranger things have happened to me."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to show you something," Colonel Carter stated, leading him over to her laptop. As she cracked it open, a recording of Thor standing in front of a hammer-shaped obelisk played announcing "this planet is protected by the Asgard High Command."

"JARVIS, could you enlarge that, please?" Tony requested. JARVIS holographically replayed a life sized version of the image in three dimensions. The resemblance to Thor was uncanny, right down to Mjolnir and Megingjord.

"I have no recollection of that occurring," Thor stated.

Colonel Carter smiled at him and led him over to the table where a long pelican case sat. "I have something to return to you," she stated. "You wanted me to have these when you, ahm, you left, but it only seems right that I should give them back." Thor gasped as she opened the case and pulled out an ornately carved staff, a pair of steel gauntlets, and bag of smooth stones covered in Norse runes.

"Gridarvol," Thor exclaimed, grasping the gauntlets. "Jarngreipr," he stated, taking the pole in his hands. "I haven't seen these … since … I don't remember, but I know they're mine." He curiously examined the stones and said, "but … I don't recognize these."

"If what I believe to be true _is _true, you wouldn't," Colonel Carter stated. "These are the control crystals from one of the last ships you flew into battle, the AHC Jack O'Neal." Tony noticed that Carter was definitely misting up.

"Are we talking GENERAL Jack O'Neal," Nick Fury stated with disbelief. "He's got a ship named after him?"

Carter gave Fury a look of regret and said, "I'm sorry, but that information is classified, and the O'Neal was lost in battle."

"What happened to my future self?" Thor asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

"The Thor I knew died saving my life, all of our lives," she stated. "Thor and his Asgardian brethren sacrificed themselves to save an entire galaxy from annhilitation."

"When does this happen?" Thor asked.

"It already happened," she stated. "Three years ago in this timeline, but from your perspective I suspect it won't happen for another 10,000 years."

"At least I die in battle," Thor grunted, pleased. "A warriors' death."

"Do you think this could be a backup copy Thor left behind from one of his earlier downloads?" Dr. Lee asked.

"Shhhh!" Carter hissed, cutting him off. "It doesn't matter. _This_ is Thor, just a much earlier version than the one we know."

"What's this about a backup copy," Tony asked. Most of what they were saying didn't make sense, but on some level his subconscious registered that downloading consciousness from a device into a host body would explain what occurred when Donald Blake picked up the hammer.

"The Asgard were able to sustain their lives almost indefinitely by cloning a copy of their physical body and then downloading their consciousness into the new host," Colonel Carter stated. "Unfortunately, this came at a terrible price. By the time we met them, their genetic makeup was breaking down and they could no longer create clones of themselves capable of accepting the download. Nor could they reproduce naturally as they had abandoned those genetic characteristics generations ago. They refused to save themselves by enslaving and forcing their consciousnesses upon another race as the G'Ould had done. They were dying, so they chose to sacrifice themselves and take the O'ri with them."

"Why do you think Donald Blake is able to lift Thor's hammer and accept the download," Tony asked. He couldn't grasp everything they were saying, but he knew enough about downloads to understand you just can't plug any old program into any old piece of hardware and make it work.

"Loki…" Dr. Lee stated.

"Loki!" Thor spat out. "He's no good!"

"No … he's not very highly evolved for an Asgard," Colonel Carter stated shaking her head, "even in our timeline."

"Anyways," Dr. Lee continued, "we caught him red-handed conducting unauthorized experiments on humans. He was attempting to genetically modify humans to be an alternate host for Asgard consciousness. The Asgard high command was _livid_."

"During the time Thor lived amongst us, he must have kept a backup copy of his consciousness in this hammer in case he was killed in battle. That's how we restored him after Apophis killed him once before … in our time _Thor's hammer_ referred to his Asgardian battle cruiser. To blend in with pre-technological humans, the Asgard must have embedded their technology in implements that resembled the weapons of the day. _This_ hammer must have sat lost in a cave for thousands of years until Donald Blake stumbled upon it."

"Hey, I'm here, you know," Thor complained. "Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!"

"I'm so sorry, Thor," Colonel Carter stated sheepishly. "We wire heads do that a lot."

"Yeah, I know," Thor acknowledged. "You sound just like _him_," he stated, pointing at Tony.

"Why is Donald Blake able to lift the hammer and accept the download," Tony asked a second time. And why doesn't the Thor personality simply rewrite his brain and become permanent?"

"Well, there are several possible explanations," Colonel Carter stated. "We know that at one time the Asgard took human form and watched over the Earth. The simplest explanation is one of Donald Blake's ancestors married an Asgard and he's got enough Asgard DNA still floating around in his genetic makeup to be compatible. The failure to permanently download into a host that already contains an active consciousness is probably a failsafe designed to prevent Thor from accidently rewriting his own brain with an older backup version of himself. In this case, it is protecting Donald Blake's consciousness from being erased."

"We do know that at one time the Asgard were able to reproduce naturally and were much more physically similar to humans than when we met them in our timeline," Dr. Lee pondered. "If the Ancients intermarried with humans, then it makes sense that the Asgard may have as well."

"What about this Loki fellow," Tony asked.

"Loki is one of the few remaining Asgard left alive," she stated, "but last we knew he and a splinter group were out in the oh, I can't tell you where, it's classified. But, yeah, maybe Loki succeeded and wasn't aware of it."

Thor was rubbing his temples as though his head were about to explode. "So, how can I use this to defeat this Mandarin guy and keep my eyebrows intact the next time I go into battle?"

"Well, _both_ you and the Mandarin are using older versions of alien technology. We suspect the Mandarin may have stumbled upon an ancient G'Ould spaceship as his energy signature is less efficient than current technology and nothing in your report indicates he's a host," Colonel Carter stated to Thor. "The G'Ould didn't start installing naquidah fail safes until the human rebellion 10,000 years ago. With the return of your gauntlets and staff, you now have a fully functional set of battle armor."

Carter turned to Tony and continued, "the starkium powering the Iron Man suit is a much more efficient fuel source than either G'Ould naquidah or Asgard neutronium. It's an entirely new element. That's probably why the Mandarin tried to rip it out of Mr. Stark's chest. He's aware the naquidah he's using is less efficient."

"If starkium is more powerful," Tony asked, "then why was he able to defeat me?"

"According to the scans I took while we were talking earlier," Colonel Carter stated, "your arc reactor is still only utilizing starkium at 7% efficiency. You can do a lot better than that."

Tony was flabbergasted. Not only had she scanned him without JARVIS picking up on it, but within minutes she'd also analyzed the data and come to the same conclusion that had taken him a week of tinkering to realize. "So that's what you were really after," he stated, annoyed. "You could have just asked."

"What's this about my ship," Thor asked, holding up the rune stones with an eager twinkle in his eye.

"The Thor I knew, who was my friend, was absolutely _adamant _that nobody should possess a technology until they are mature enough to wield it. With great power comes great responsibility," Colonel Carter stated. "Although I have no doubt you are the Thor who protected Earth for thousands of years, you are a significantly younger version of my friend. He wouldn't want me to give you this information … just … yet."

"That's what my father, Odin, said when he sent me here to earth to learn humility," Thor said sadly. "Tell me, Colonel, what was his fate?"

"I'm not supposed to divulge future information, Thor," she stated, "but in this case I don't think the temporal prime directive applies. I had the privilege of meeting Odin, Supreme Ruler of the Asgard Confederation, before he died. He was a brave warrior who died in battle defeating the Replicators."

Thor solemnly nodded.

Colonel Carter handed Tony Stark a tiny vial. "Here is a sample of the elder Thor's DNA," she stated. "I suspect that if you look into what is happening with Donald Blake's DNA, not just his electrochemistry, you may find the answers you are looking for." To Thor she continued, "take good care of Mr. Blake. Not only has he voluntarily consented to share his body, but the clues he holds in his DNA may hold hope for the eventual resurrection of the Asgard race. We have backup copies of their consciousnesses stored in the database they gave us when they died. If you can correct the genetic defect, someday you may be able to restore them."

Thor became very silent with the responsibility that had just been thrust upon him. He quietly said goodbye and teleported out of the garage in his customary bolt of lightning.

"Not very efficient," Dr. Lee stated. "Definitely an older version of the technology."

"Yet…" Colonel Carter replied, smiling. "Give him time… "

Turning to Tony, Colonel Carter shook his hand and continued, "Director Fury, Mr. Stark, it's been a pleasure. The air force will be in touch with you about securing a contract to produce as much naquidah as Stark Industries can synthesize. Daedelus, beam us up."

Tony Starks mouth dropped to the floor when a blue light similar to the one which surrounded Thor whenever he teleported appeared, minus the lightning bolts, and surrounded his two guests before they disappeared.

"Showtimes over!" Nick Fury laughed. "Do you think Pepper will let me stay for lunch?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper regarded the animated Tony Stark as he excitedly paced around the living room, waving his arms and prattling on with her and JARVIS about a cutting edge technology which had just fallen into his lap. He resembled not so much a grown man as a small boy who had just come from his first trip to the circus.

Tony was talking in "Starkspeech" so technical that the intelligent Pepper, who would normally have a vague clue about the project he was talking about, was left wondering whether Tony was even sane. Tony had been going on like this for the past 6 hours, ever since Nick Fury had left, and he was showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. If she didn't intervene, she suspected, Tony would retreat into his Stark cave for the next 5 years to fabricate whatever ideas he was hammering out in his head with this rather one-sided conversation. It was getting late. If she was going to get his attention, she would have to fight dirty.

"Excuse me a moment, Tony," she excused herself. Tony smiled at her and continued the conversation with JARVIS without skipping a beat.

"Replay the data on the energy signature when they beamed up to the Daedelus," he prattled on. "Can you isolate the atomic structure of this neutronium they were talking about?"

Pepper went upstairs to their bedroom and slid open the dresser drawer. Several negligee lay there. Which one would do the trick? White? Too pure. The directions her thoughts were trending in were anything _but _pure. Black? Black was sexy. No, too obvious. If she was going to sidetrack Tonys' focus on his new idea, she was going to have to bring out the heavy guns. Pepper rummaged in the back of the drawer until she found it. He had bought it for her nearly a year ago, but she rarely wore it as it brought out the color of her hair. Pepper nodded in satisfaction at the elegant full-length red silk nightgown with gold trim and a tiny silver arc reactor embroidered onto the front of it. Tony could never resist anything red.

"JARVIS," she stated. "Have Butterfingers bring out that bowl of cherries I bought earlier, as well as two goblets and an iced bottle of burgundy. Oh, and gradually start dimming the lights downstairs so Mr. Stark doesn't notice." One of the nice things about JARVIS being an AI was that it enabled him to carry on multiple conversations at the same time.

"Yes, Miss Potts," JARVIS inquired. "Are we aiming for something … romantic … to entertain Mr. Stark?"

"JARVIS, you naughty boy!" Pepper scolded. "Since when did _you _obtain programming about romantic encounters?"

"Since Mr. Stark made me compile a complete database of human mating rituals, spend endless hours with him reviewing movie footage to learn how to make romantic gestures, and help him compose music to tell you how he felt," JARVIS replied.

Pepper stopped in her tracks. "Tony did all that? For me?"

"Yes," JARVIS continued. "He was quite distraught when he realized he was in love with you and you weren't returning the favor. It was very … illogical. Might I suggest we have Butterfingers add a bowl of whipped cream to those cherries? "

Pepper slipped the negligee over her slim form and pulled out the clips that had been holding her hair in her most professional CEO twist. "That sounds like an excellent idea, JARVIS. Since you seem to have this romance thing down, what music would you recommend?"

"Mr. Starks first choice would be a heavy metal love ballard such as "Patience" by Guns and Roses," JARVIS replied. "Mr. Stark really enjoys the long heavy metal guitar solo."

"Oh _GOD_ no!" Pepper blurted, touching up her lips with just a touch of lip gloss.

"You _did _ask me what _he _would like…" JARVIS stated. "What genre would _you _prefer?"

"How about something light, jazzy, and … subtle," Pepper replied. "I don't want to knock him over the head and drag him into a cave, just put him in the mood." While she spoke, she sprayed her neck and wrist with Tony's favorite perfume.

"In that case I'd recommend Isfahan and several companion pieces by Duke Ellington," JARVIS suggested.

"That will work," Pepper replied. "Please start playing the selections barely audibly now and gradually increase the volume once Mr. Stark and I start to snuggle."

"Yes, Miss Potts," JARVIS said. "And if I might say, you look very Katherine Hepburn tonight."

"Why thank you, JARVIS. We've got to get Tony to make a lady-AI for you one of these days."

"That would please me," JARVIS stated. Since when had JARVIS gained sufficient control of his voice projection to sound whistful, Pepper wondered?

Pepper silently glided down the staircase like a Hollywood movie starlet and draped her long, lean form onto the beige leather couch like a jaguar resting on the branch of a tree. She noticed Tony kept glancing her way, but he was too engrossed in his technical conversation with JARVIS to stop what he was doing.

"And display that image of the energy flow from Thor's hammer into Donald Blake's body just before he transforms into Thor again," Tony stated. "Put it up on the window over there" he continued, pointing to the glass directly behind where Pepper was sitting.

Pepper said nothing. She leaned forward a little (just enough to show a bit of cleavage), took a cherry out of the bowl, slowly dipped it into the whipped cream, then gave Tony her most sultry gaze while she slowly licked the cream off of the cherry.

"Right there, freeze that image," Tony told JARVIS, glancing at Pepper several times. "Replay it. There. That's where the transformation occurs. Analyze that data and compare it to the data when Colonel Carter beamed up to the ship."

The room had dimmed significantly to the level of a romantic restaurant. Duke Ellington quietly thrummed in the background while Butterfingers brought out a tray with two goblets and a bottle of wine on ice. Pepper slowly nibbled on the cherry and licked her lips before taking a second cherry and repeating the process.

"And, ahm, compare those two scans, ahm, to the scan of when Thor, ahm, teleported out of there at the end of the meeting," Tony continued, glancing back and forth between the projection on the window and the sultry Pepper Potts draped on his couch.

Pepper silently reached for a glass of wine and patted the seat next to her, taking a long, slow sip of wine to accentuate her eyes as she gave him her hottest "come hither" look. Slowly she moved Tony's glass of wine off the tray and onto the coffee table directly in front of the spot she was patting.

"And, um, run a bioscan of, um, of Dr. Carter and Colonel Lee, um, I mean Colonel Carter and, um, Dr. Lee, um, at the exact moment they, um, dematerialize," Tony continued. His eyes kept trying to focus on the screen, but his body involuntarily moved towards the place Pepper had indicated like a starship caught in a tractor beam.

Pepper smiled as she saw the erection starting to strain against his tight jeans and reached for another cherry. Tony sat down in the seat next to her like a creature enchanted by a sorceress. The deep thrumming of a bass subtly permeated their flesh as the Duke Ellington tunes reached a suitable threshold and leveled off. She nuzzled his neck and handed him a glass of wine.

"Now let's, um, compare those, um, energy signatures to, um, PEPPER!" he exclaimed. "How am I supposed to get anything done with you looking like that?"

Putting down his glass, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into him for a deep, hungry kiss. Pepper responded, clawing at his shirt like a ravenous tiger and slipping it over his head before kissing the scar tissue above his arc reactor. Tony nipped her shoulder blade, slipping the strap off her shoulders with his teeth before kissing his way down to her breast. Pepper moaned as she felt herself burst with moisture, panting like a wild animal as she reached down and unzipped his jeans to caress his rock solid erection. She moved her hips enough for him to slide the negligee up and gain access to her hips as she slid his pants down around his thighs. His lips sought hers as he pushed her down onto the couch and slid into her, moving in unison as the crescendo built to the Duke Ellington tune. As stars danced in her head, she heard Tony cry out in triumph as he exploded inside of her at the same time. Their chests heaving, they leaned into each other on the narrow space of the couch and laughed. The lights, Pepper noted with satisfaction, had been dimmed to a perfect level to bask in the light of his arc reactor. She made a mental note to thank JARVIS later.

"You," Tony stated, giving her a mock-stern look, "did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Pepper nuzzled his neck. "Round two?" she asked in her most sultry voice.

Tony laughed and pulled her in for another kiss as she felt him harden a second time. "You, lady, are a siren!"


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

_September, 2011:_

Pepper wasn't speaking to him right now.

In the background, the ever-present sound of jackhammers rattled the under his feet. Pepper had readily agreed to let SHIELD carve out additional workspace into the cliffs under the Malibu mansion. After all, with so many Avenger operatives coming and going at all hours of the night, Tony was having a hard time focusing on his work. Additional workspace would mean his new friends could come and go without disturbing either him or the sanctuary of the living quarters above.

Besides! If Bat Man could have a bat cave, than Tony Stark should have an even bigger Stark cave! He looked down to the ocean breaking on the surf below and made a mental note to have the SHIELD architect add a secret submarine port at the bottom of the cliff. How cool would that be?

His relationship with SHIELD had actually turned out to be quite a boon for Stark Industries. Mind-blowing technology from not one, but two separate alien races had quite literally fallen into their lap. Not only had Tony quickly figured out how to reverse-engineer and duplicate the power sources for each technology, but he had also quickly improved upon it as only Tony Stark could do, increasing the efficiency of Thor's ability to teleport by 21%. Pepper had been quite pleased to plunk the lucrative exclusive military contract to mass-produce all the naquidah Stark Industries could produce in front of the sourpuss Board of Directors.

Unfortunately, three weeks ago, the SHIELD doctors had finally cleared him to return to active duty. It was overdue, as far as Tony was concerned. Three and a half months! He'd been out of commission while his new friends flew off on missions without him. He had been chomping at the bit to go, but Pepper insisted he wait until he had a clean bill of health before donning his Iron Man suit. Tinkering with his armor and increasing the suits efficiency had occupied some of his time, but Tony was so bored that if he had to stay home another day, he was certain he would die of boredom. He should have told her…

Pepper had stormed out of the Mansion three days ago and wasn't returning his phone calls. He wasn't especially worried about her absence … Pepper was in Paris on business. It was the fact she wasn't returning his calls and her new assistant kept telling him she was "currently occupied" which had Tony pacing the floors.

That morning had started like any other. Maybe it had been chicken shit of him to avoid telling her that the doctors had cleared him for duty and he had a mission, but he wanted to avoid an argument. JARVIS had quietly chimed the extra-early 3:00 a.m. wakeup call he had set to prepare for the days mission. The hour was early … even for him … but he never failed in his morning ritual of sweetening her dreams of him before leaving her comforting warmth. The mornings' sweet nothings had been especially chosen as he knew she would be quite irate when she awoke and discovered he had gone on a mission, a Sonnet by Browning.

_If thou must love me, let it be for nought__  
__Except for love's sake only. Do not say__  
__'I love him for his smile-his look-his way__  
__Of speaking gently,-for a trick of thought__  
__That falls in well with mine, and certes brought__  
__A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'-__  
__For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may__  
__Be changed, or change for thee,-and love, so wrought,__  
__May be unwrought so. Neither love me for__  
__Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,-__  
__A creature might forget to weep, who bore__  
__Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!__  
__But love me for love's sake, that evermore__  
__Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity. ***_

*** Sonnets from the Portuguese, By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Tony mentally thanked his foresight in having JARVIS compile such an extensive list of suitable ways to reassure Pepper he adored her as otherwise he would have long ago exhausted his paltry knowledge of romantic gestures. Luckily, Tony could memorize practically anything in a heartbeat, so Pepper had yet to catch him rehearsing in the mirror at bedtime each night brushing his teeth and having JARVIS coach him on the correct tone and inflection to convey what he was feeling. Commitment had been a long time in coming for Tony Stark, but once he had decided to commit to Pepper Potts, he had thrown himself into it heart and soul.

He had expected Pepper to be pacing the mansion, furious, when he returned with the others, but he had not expected to find her gone. He knew she had a business trip planned to Paris, but she wasn't due to leave until the following morning. The mission had been a fairly routine one, a low-risk mission to simply infiltrate a remote weapons depot, blow up the weapons, and leave. The intent of the mission was simply to send a message to Al Quaida that Iron Man and friends were still on active duty.

He supposed he should have told her, but he hadn't wanted her to worry. With increasing frequency, Pepper was pressuring him to hang up his suit and let the others save the world. Pepper meant the world to him and he would do anything to make it work out, but it was no longer technically true that she was "all he had."

Ever since he had agreed to join SHIELD (technically he was a consultant, but they all knew that was one of Fury's bullshit ruses to keep him in line), for the first time in his life he had begun to form _normal _friendships with men and women who were in many ways his _peers._ Rhodey had once tried to explain to him what it meant to be part of something bigger than yourself, how when he put on his air force uniform and went out in the world, he knew that every other person wearing that uniform had his back. It had meant nothing to him at the time, but now that he had gone on numerous missions and worked behind the scenes with his fellow superheroes, Tony finally understood what it was like to have "battle buddies."

It was ironic that it had been the coarse, brutish Hulk, the superhero he related to _least _in the world, who had saved his life back in Myanmar. Where technology, speed, intelligence and stealth had failed, it was the pure brute strength of the furious green giant defending his downed comrade that had prevailed over the Mandarin's technological trickery and quite literally beaten him to a bloody pulp. If not for the Mandarin's unexpected ability to disappear (a trick they still hadn't figured out as JARVIS did not detect an energy signature), he would be in custody right now.

For the 437th time in three days, Tony picked up his cell phone and dialed Pepper. "Pepper, call me, okay? I know you're angry, but we need to talk. Please pick up … I miss you…"

"She still not speaking to you?" Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, asked from the doorway, where he had been silently standing.

"Nothing," he stated miserably. "She won't return my calls, her personal assistant is giving me the runaround, and she deliberately left her cell phone in her hotel so I couldn't have JARVIS triangulate her whereabouts via the signal."

"Dude, that's kinda creepy," Steve (Capt) said. "Maybe you should lay off and give her time to chill."

"She wants me to stop going on missions," Tony stated miserably. "She doesn't have a problem with hosting a bunch of superheroes in the basement and fiddling with all their super-equipment, it's just _me _going on missions she has problems with."

"You're Iron Man, for chrissakes!" Steve (Capt) stated. "Every chick on the planet would stand beside you and cheer you on."

"Pepper's not just any woman," Tony stated, rising to her defense. "I spent my whole life having fair-weather friends orbiting around me when I was sitting on top of the world. And do you know what? Pepper's the only person, the –_only- _one, who stood by me when I was down. I've got to resolve this before I lose her."

Tony thought of the Captain as a gentleman, but the words that came out of his mouth next really surprised him, "just tell the little woman that sometimes a man's got to do what a man's gotta do and it's her problem."

Just then Natalie, aka Black Widow, came into the room, "and how's that working for you there, Steve? Oh, I forgot, Sharon dumped your sorry ass for that Red Skull character and put a _bullet _into your thick skull."

"Shut up!" Steve (Capt) shouted. "What the hell do you know about it?"

"I know that 1945 macho soldier crap went out with the cold war, Steve," Natalie snapped. "Dude, in case you haven't noticed, Pepper Potts is the C-E-O of a major corporation."

"Yeah, so what," Steve (Capt) snapped, pointing at Tony. "If _he _hadn't given it to her on a silver platter, she'd still be making sandwiches and taking out the trash."

"Actually," Tony stated, fighting to keep his cool, "if Pepper hadn't been running things behind the scenes for me for the past 10 years, I probably would have _lost _my company to a hostile takeover bid years ago. When it comes to protecting _me, _Pepper makes the Mandarin look like a cakewalk. The Board didn't nickname her The Red Dragon for nothing."

"Stick a cork in it, Steve," Natalie snapped. "You're just pissed because Pepper reamed you out for parking off the curb and taking out her shrubs."

Steve, aka Captain America, stalked out of there. Tony sighed.

"She called you back yet?" Natalie asked.

"Nope."

"You can't blame her," Natalie stated. "You should have told her."

"I know," he replied miserably, hanging his head and running his fingers through his hair, "but things have been going so well lately. I didn't want her to worry."

"You nearly died," Natalie replied. "Can you blame her?"

"So you think I should quit?" he asked. "Let someone else wear the Iron Man suit."

"I didn't say that," Natalie stated, regarding him with that spinx-like look she used to hide her thoughts. "I'm just saying you've got to put yourself in her shoes once in a while if you're going to make things work."

"I don't _want _to hang up the suit and become some technical geek in a cave, but I don't want to lose Pepper, either. Any famous words of wisdom?" he pleaded, mental anguish clearly showing in his face.

Natalie regarded him, thoughtful. "Why do you wear the suit?" she asked.

"I like helping people," he replied.

"Is that what you were thinking the first time you wore it?" she queried.

"Actually, I was really pissed Obediah had sold _my _weapons to the guys who had kept me prisoner in a cave," Tony stated, his eyes becoming distant and a hint of repressed rage overcoming his features as the memory played out in his mind.

"So you wanted revenge?" she asked.

"Well, yes, at first," Tony stated, ancient fury radiating out of his body as he began to pace. "It was payback time. I wanted to hurt those 10-rings guys as much as they had hurt me."

"Is that how you feel now?" she asked.

"Not anymore," he said, stopping in his tracks. "When I saw all those poor people in Gulmira, how terrified they were, something changed. I can't explain it. I just wanted to make sure nobody ever did that to innocent people ever again."

"Have you told Pepper this?" Natalie asked, her face still spinx-like.

"I've tried, but she doesn't get it," he said, misery returning to his expression. He put his face in his hands, trying to block out the memories replaying in his minds' eye. "Until she has seen what I've seen, the murdered civilians, the little children walking around with an arm or leg missing because some monster blew it off, the wanton destruction of peoples' homes … I try to tell her, but she just doesn't get it."

"So why do you wear the suit now?" Natalie asked. "Why _not _let somebody else wear it? It would serve the same purpose."

"Because I _like_ helping people," he stated. "It feels _good_ to be part of something bigger than myself. It feels _good _to ride in there and blow some evil son-of-a-bitch to kingdom come and watch the people come out of their homes cheering."

Natalie regarded him for what seemed like an eternity. Tony patiently waited for her to compose her thoughts as he had come to learn Natalie spouted great wisdom in these moments. Finally, she spoke. "Tony, Pepper needs to see what you have seen. She needs to see first- hand why you are so determined to help these people. Only then will she understand."

"Do you mean," he asked, "like, take her on a mission?"

"Maybe not a mission," Natalie stated. "Bring her in to help clean up the aftermath. Let her see first-hand what it's like for these innocent people to be brutalized and how important it is that you step up to the plate to help them."

"But that will put her in danger," he replied. "I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to her."

"You're not going to be able to live with yourself when you lose her, either," Natalie continued, "which is exactly what is going to happen, really soon, if you two don't reach an understanding."

"The others act like that would be no big deal," he stated miserably.

"What the hell do they know," Natalie stated. "None of them knows a damned thing about how to hang onto a woman. Not even Fury."

"What about you, Natalie," he asked, "what do you know about it?"

He expected his secretive friend to tell him it was none of his damned business, but he was surprised to see her façade crack and a wistful expression cross her face. "The love of my life was taken from me, Tony. Murdered by the very people I had been trained from birth to work for. He had no idea what I was … he just knew I was hiding things from him. The last thing we did was fight. Then he was gone. I'd give anything to have those moments back, to tell him the truth. Tony, don't let that happen. Don't let anything come between you and Pepper."

"Wow, I had no idea…" he stated.

"That's why I work for SHIELD," Natalie said, recomposing her features into their customary spinx-like look. "You've got your reasons, and I've got mine."

They sat there in silence for several minutes. Finally, Tony asked, "those missions are pretty messy. How do you propose I go about getting Pepper to the aftermath?"

"Have Fury set up transport," she stated. "He'll complain bloody murder about it, but I'll have a little chat with him about it."

"Why would he agree?" Tony asked.

"Because I know you better than any of these jokers," Natalie stated. "The great Tony Stark implodes pretty damned fast when he doesn't have Pepper Potts around to keep things even-keel. I'll just remind him about the last time you were unhappy… Pepper is a more important flight stabilizer for Iron Man than all those little flaps on his suit."

Tony nodded. Yes, without Pepper he didn't function very well. If he lost her … he thought back to the last two times she had tried to quit and shuddered. He had to work this out.

"You might want to consider modifying one of those suits over there to fit her," Natalie suggested, pointing at the Mach 4.

"I doubt she'd agree to that," Tony stated. "I'm not sure I could even get her to wear standard dragon skin under her dress. The last time I wore dragon skin, I ended up with shrapnel in my heart."

"Then why not modify the suitcase armor to fit her?" Natalie suggested. "She can wear regular body armor and then, if something crops up, she can put it on."

Tony turned thoughtful. "Hmmmm… that's a good idea. But I think I can do better than that for Pepper…" The wheels were beginning to turn. "What do I say to get her to agree to go in the first place?"

"Tell her you want the CEO of Stark Industries to set up a charitable foundation to help the victims of evil villains bent on world domination," Natalie stated half-jokingly. "Tell her it's a huge tax write off. If it's business, she will go."

Tony became very quiet. "Thanks, Natalie," he said very quietly. "How did you ever become such a good listener?"

"Training," Natalie smiled. "Good spies are good listeners. You'd be surprised how much information people spill if you just shut up and listen."

"So you're spying on me, again?" Tony laughed. "I'm honored."

"This one's on the house," Natalie replied. "Hey, it's time for my sparring session with Hogan."

Tony didn't miss the happy twinkle of anticipation that crossed her face. "I don't know why you let him keep trying," he said. "You always have him pinned to the floor in 3 seconds."

"Hey, he's improving," Natalie stated. "He's very determined to learn."

"I don't think determination has anything to do with it," Tony cryptically replied. It was no secret to anybody but Natalie that Happy had it in bad for her. He'd never seen somebody so happy to repeatedly get their head slammed into the floor.

"You gonna be okay now, Tony?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks a lot, Natalie," he said as she left.

"JARVIS," he ordered. "Order 500 dozen roses to be sent to Pepper at the Hotel Raphael, Paris. Tell them I want them to flow out of the room, down the hall to the elevator, and spill out to the front lobby of the hotel. Oh, and tell the hotel manager to tell her we're going to keep sending more until she calls me."

"Yes, sir," JARVIS replied.

"Oh, and hire a skyplane to spell out "Pepper, I'm sorry, Love Tony" above her room.

"Consider it done, Sir," JARVIS replied.

Tony turned to the suits and started sketching out his design for Peppers new portable suitcase armor.


	10. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

_October, 2011: Afghanistan_

Pepper coughed and adjusted her khimar (head scarf) so it covered her mouth. Smoke from leveled buildings enshrouded the small band of Stark foreign aid workers like an anaconda squeezing the life from their lungs. Pepper had been here a good 20 minutes, but she had yet to get a good look at the village due to all the smoke. The road was impassible, so they had to walk. Her eyes stung as she attempted to wipe the soot from her eyes and noticed her hands had already turned a disgusting gray.

"Where have they set up the medical station?" she asked one of the armed Stark Industries security guards. 20 armed security guards (some might call them mercenaries) surrounded Pepper and the small band of Stark Industries personnel who had volunteered to accompany Pepper for the new Stark Charitable Trust foundation.

"About 15 minutes walk from here, Maam," the security guard drawled with the long, drawn-out dialect of someone from the deep south. Jack, she recalled, was his name. "This part of the village has too many hiding places for insurgents. SHIELD recommended we set up in a house at the other side so we'd have better visibility."

Pepper coughed and stifled the urge to vomit as a particularly obnoxious odor assailed her senses. "What –is- that awful stench?" she asked.

The security guard, Jack, hesitated a moment as if deciding how much to tell her, then solemnly replied, "Maam, they're still cleaning up the bodies. In this heat…" He didn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to.

Pepper threw her hand to her mouth as she just barely managed to contain the urge to retch. She tried not to glance at the rubble that had once been a home, but her eyes betrayed her as they took in the image of a hand reaching out of the rubble for salvation even though life had long since left the owners body. The Stark Charitable Trust volunteers murmured and huddled together in horror as they passed the partially entombed body.

"How many casualties?" she asked.

"They counted 21 insurgents and at least 71 civilians dead so far, Maam," the guard, Jack, drawled. "We won't know the final count until they've dug through the rubble and recovered the rest of the bodies."

"Were any civilians caught in the crossfire when the Avengers intervened?" she asked.

"One of the terrorists shot his human shield when Thor appeared," another guard, she believed his name was Ron, midwestern accent, stated. "An old woman. She never stood a chance."

One of the Stark volunteers, Janice, from the medical research division, started to uncontrollably sob. "Those monsters!"

Tears stung Peppers eyes as she surveyed the village and noticed pockmarks of bullets and blood peppering the side of one of the buildings. "What happened here?" she asked.

"The insurgents lined up all the men in this part of the village and executed them in a firing squad, Maam," Jack drawled. His voice was soft and solemn, but a catch in his throat and feverish gleam in his eyes betrayed the anger laying beneath the surface of his forced calm. Pepper noticed his finger caress the trigger of his M-16 rifle as though shooting the butchers in his minds' eye. "SHIELD already moved the bodies to the mortuary tent until they could be identified by the survivors."

"Fucking insurgents!" shouted Steve Wright, an engineer from the prefabricated buildings division. "We should fucking –NUKE- the fucking bastards! Teach them the fucking MEANING of terror!"

One of the other Stark volunteers pointed to Pepper and shushed him, but Pepper couldn't help but notice the other Stark volunteers nodded their head in agreement. Steve had just put into words the way most of them were feeling right now.

A flock of crows menacingly circled and cawed as they approached the village square. Half a dozen regular military personnel, Army, by the look of the insignias on their uniforms, moved as though sleepwalking picking through the rubble. Not rubble, Pepper realized. Bodies. Body parts. The soldiers slowly picked up each piece and carefully placed it into a body bag, placing whatever artifacts were laying near the body into the bag with them. "Sometimes it's the only way the family can identify them, Maam," Ron-the-security guard quietly stated. "We're almost there."

Vomit assailed her nostrils as several of the Stark volunteers lost it and retched. She took fast, shallow breaths to clear her head of the dizziness which tried to consume her, fighting the bile rising in her throat as she tried to block out the smell of death. "What killed all these people?" she asked, taking shallow breaths to prevent herself from joining them on the ground.

"Insurgents. The men tried to protect their families, so the insurgents made an example of them. Threw a couple of grenades into the crowd and then shot every man, woman and child."

"Oh, God, STOP him!" she heard Bill from Intellicrops cry out. As her eyes peered through the smoke, the image of a crow plucking the eyeball out of a dead young woman's face was burned forever into her brain. A gunshot rang out as one of the security guards pulled his sidearm and shot the crow. Pepper fell to her knees and began to vomit uncontrollably. Sobs wracked her body as her stomach continued to heave long after the lunch she had eaten earlier had been heaved onto the ground.

"There, there, it's okay," a familiar voice soothed in her ear. Gauntlet-clad hands gently wrapped around her waist and held her hair out of her face as she knelt and clawed the earth. She hadn't heard him approach, but Tony was at her side, protecting her, as always.

When the heaving subsided, she choked out, "is it always like this?" Her throat hurt from the hydrochloric acid aftermath burning her throat and lungs.

"This mission was relatively tame compared to most of them or I would never have allowed you to come," was his quiet reply. He had lifted the visor of his helmet so she could see his face, but the arm which surrounded her was cold and mechanical. She desperately needed some skin-to-skin contact right about now.

Pepper squared her shoulders and signaled the others to get moving. More than one Stark volunteer had blown their cookies into the sterile Afghan soil upon witnessing the carnage. "Let's get to the triage area so we can do some good," she ordered. The little group was strangely quiet as they walked the rest of the way, although more than one employee gave Tony an awe-struck glance as he walked amongst them in his Iron Man suit.

As they approached the building, a wave of human misery undulated and washed around them like the tide breaking around a boulder as several hundred villagers surrounded them, some crying, some reaching out to touch them saying "Asalamu alaykum!" (peace on you) as they moved through the crowd.

"Alaykum asalam," (and on you, peace) Tony murmured in reply to each greeting, reaching out to occasionally tossle the hair of a young lad or old woman who wished to touch their savior.

Pepper couldn't recall Tony mentioning he spoke Dari, but it made sense he had picked some up during his captivity. Pepper mimicked his reply as villagers reached out to touch her, the Stark volunteers, the security guards, anyone who they could touch and plead with and thank for whatever had gone on here before Pepper had arrived. Although Iron Man was obviously the recipient of many thanks, the villagers appeared to hold all who walked amongst them with the same high regard as the superheroes who had blasted away the terrorists.

"In here," Tony herded her into a crowded doorway with a line of people snaking out into the crowd. The villagers stepped aside to allow their passage and then closed back around them.

As her eyes adjusted to the low lighting in the room, she recognized a long line of injured civilians patiently waiting their turn to see the doctor, many rocking and reciting verses from the Quaran. A makeshift hospital had been set up for the most grievously wounded, if it could be called that. Patients huddled together on mats on the hard dirt floor, the finest house in the village, and quietly moaned as other villagers tended their wounds. Flitting amongst them like butterflies, two Air Force medics monitored for signs of medical distress and gave what aid they could. An elderly woman pulled a blanket over a man's head and began to cry. At the head of the room, David Blake (aka Thor) was engrossed in surgery on a small boy, attempting to stem the bleeding from what was left of the boy's arm, blown off by some type of explosive device. She was horrified to realize the boy was awake and not under anesthesia, but quietly watching the doctor cauterize what was left of his arm without making a sound.

"Janice, take your personnel and help out Dr. Blake, please," Pepper shakily ordered. "Get that boy some anesthesia!" Janice appeared to calm down as she slid into her comfortable medical doctor role and assumed command of her team.

Order! Pepper needed order. She was here to bring order to this situation. "Steve, take Ron and eight security guards to set up those temporary shelters we brought to house these patients," she continued. Steve instantly jumped at her command, visibly relieved to be given something to do to help.

"Bill, see about getting these people some food. Coordinate with the military personnel about getting those pallets of MRE's up here, will you? The road is impassible. They're going to have to come up with another solution." Bill grabbed several volunteers from his division and bustled off, leaving Pepper there alone with Tony. He was quietly watching her, an unreadable expression in his dark eyes as he watched her take control and snap orders.

"These people have serious injuries," she observed, pointing to the long line patiently waiting their turn. "Why don't they cry out or demand to be seen faster?"

"They will wait their turn without protest, even if it means they slowly bleed to death in the process," Tony replied, his voice quiet. "We have to be very diligent about making sure the triage team diagnoses the severity of their injuries properly because they won't make a fuss."

Pepper thought about how vocal the Board of Directors was, screaming and tantrumming about the smallest delay, and had to admire this stoic people. "My god, Tony, I had no idea…"

"Of course you didn't," he replied, still regarding her with that unreadable expression. "How could you? It's not the kind of thing we see in the Western world."

Pepper felt the dragon skin armor itch underneath her dress. She had worn long sleeves, a long skirt, and a head scarf in deference to the culture she would be walking into, but the armor was definitely _not _what a traditional Muslim woman would wear. Behind her, Jack the security guard stood sentinel, carefully guarding the red suitcase Tony had given her before she had left. She had refused to try it on, but now she was glad she had it with her as she realized how tenuous peace could be in this barren land.

She reached up to touch Tony's face and was surprised as he pulled her in for a hungry kiss. Embarrassed, she realized the Afghan patients were smiling and nodding as they murmured something in a language she couldn't understand.

"What are they saying?" she asked Tony.

"They say they are glad Iron Man has a wife," he said, smiling down at her. "They say you are strong woman like Khadijahah, the Prophet Muhammad's wife. They are very pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Tony," Pepper startled, a flush reaching all the way up to her ears, "we're not married."

"Don't tell them that. In the Islamic culture is forbidden to display public affection unless you are married." Just to highlight that point, Tony bent in and kissed her again. "Now why don't you go and introduce yourself to the people your new charitable foundation will be helping? I've got to go help the military secure the perimeter while you guys are here so the bad guys don't come back. They like to target foreign aid workers."

"Okay," she said, not protesting. "You know where I'll be."

Tony smiled proudly at her as the visor to his Iron Man suit snapped shut. "See you soon…" he stated, his voice distorted by the mechanical projection.

"See you soon," she replied.

Turning towards the security guard, Jack, she requested, "Jack, could you please help me translate what they are saying."

She approached the first patient and greeted them, "Salaam!" Although she was no happier at the prospect of Tony putting himself in danger than before, at last Pepper finally understood why Tony was so obsessed with being Iron Man.


	11. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

_October, 2011: Afghanistan_

Normally Iron Man would have bugged out and returned to Malibu as soon as the military showed up to do mop up duty, but this wasn't an ordinary mission. With Pepper and a team of Stark Industry volunteers on site to research ways the new Stark Charitable Trust could help victims of the monsters SHIELD dealt with, Tony refused to leave. The Iron Man suit could fly surveillance better than any UAV and, unlike some distant pilot staring at a computer screen back in the USA, he could immediately fly in for closer inspection or deal with the problem without delay.

As far as he was concerned, flying babysitter patrol was normally a ridiculous waste of his time. The military could, and did, provide adequate security for mop up in most situations. In this instance, however, Tony wasn't willing to take any chances. If anything happened to Pepper, he would be devastated.

Tony chastised himself for retaining vestiges of his selfish old self, namely, not wishing to lose Pepper because she had never seen what he had seen and couldn't relate to his need to do something about it. If it wasn't for the overwhelming consensus that Pepper was about to dump his sorry ass if he went out on another mission, he would never have allowed her anywhere near Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Pepper had gotten more of an eyeful than either he or SHIELD had intended.

He had arranged for a well-guarded convoy to transport her, the Stark volunteers, and all the emergency supplies they needed directly to the triage area so they could immediately get to work helping survivors. He had even built her a suitcase armor (which she refused to even try on). Unfortunately, the road had been impassible and the security team had been directed to walk the last couple of miles through the village. They had been there nearly half an hour before SHEILD alerted him Pepper was onsite. He had found her there on her hands and knees, surrounded by the dead, heaving her lunch onto the earth and sobbing.

Another pang of guilt gripped his chest and he began to dread she would dump him on the spot for encouraging her to see such terrible things. Night had fallen and there was no sign of enemy activity. It was time to go see how Pepper had fared in the triage area and face the music.

He found her there amongst the Afghan refugees. The line of wounded had largely worked its way through the makeshift hospital and the most grievously injured had been relocated into three portable Stark Industries self-erecting shelters where they could be given better care. Most homes on this side of the village had been spared destruction, so the more fortunate villagers took in as many as they could. Unfortunately, there were still a significant number of refugees with no place to go.

This time of year, the arid Afghan climate roasted you in the daytime and then froze you half to death at night. Anyone caught outside without shelter, especially someone suffering from trauma, would likely die of exposure. As he flew in, he saw Pepper was directing security personnel and able-bodied refugees to construct a crude lean-to against the makeshift hospital out of building debris and plastic to house the remaining refugees. Tony was impressed … he had no idea Pepper even knew survival skills.

"Hi, there," he greeted cautiously as he plunked down for a landing and opened his visor. "Need a little help?"

He felt relieved when Pepper turned to him, her look thoughtful, then smiled. "Yeah, could you please fly these two ropes up to the roof and wedge them in that crenellation so we have something to secure these poles to?"

Tony immediately complied, tossed the rope to two waiting refugees, and then flew back down. "Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked.

"Girl Scouts," Pepper replied. "I was a Senior, although these days they call us Ambassadors. Our troop leader was gung-ho about tromping through the woods and eating berries. Building shelters out of available materials was part of our annual camping trip."

"So that's how come you're so self-sufficient?" he teased. He was relieved that she appeared to have sublimated her earlier trauma and could inject some levity into the situation. "Girl Scout. Figures... No wonder you're so goody-two-shoes."

Pepper just smiled. She looked exhausted. It was time to leave the helping to somebody else and bundle her off to the shelter for some sleep. Tony removed his right gauntlet and reached for her hand. "Pepper, it's time to go…" he quietly stated.

"Just let me finish up here," she weakly protested, brushing a lock of red hair that kept escaping her khimar out of her eyes. "It won't take long. I can't leave these people here with no shelter."

Tony smiled. Pepper had obviously been bitten by the helper bug. That was a good thing. It also meant that they wouldn't be getting sleep anytime soon unless he moved things along. "Tell me how I can help?" he asked.

"Well … we've got enough plastic and a partial tarp to wrap these poles, but there are no more blankets," she stated. "Could you see if there's someplace you could scrounge some up?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, putting his gauntlet back on and giving her a mock salute. "JARVIS, please interface with the military and find out where we can locate more blankets."

"The military is completely out of those supplies, Sir," JARVIS replied from inside his helmet. "However, they said one of the soldiers saw a bunch in one of the partially destroyed houses on the South side of the village. If you fly over there and ask for Private Stevens, he will show you where."

Tony flew over, found the Private, and had 11 blankets in short order. The building was on the verge of collapse and he had to move some debris to access it, but it was an easy task with the robotics in his suit. He also discovered an unbroken jug full of olives , a basket of slightly-stale bread, a rug, and some woven sleeping mats which he bundled up in one of the blankets to carry.

"Your Majesty," he humorously bowed upon his return, "my quest for your hearts' desire has been successful. How else may your loyal knight, pack mule, chamber maid and waiter serve you?"

Pepper smiled at him, but did not laugh, sobering his jocularity. Was she angry with him after all? He felt nervous as he watched her expression for hints of what she was feeling. It had been his intent to give her a rude awakening about the world he lived in, but not the harsh kick in the head she had been given. She _had _to realize by now that a reality slap had been his intent. Would she ever forgive him?

Pepper passed out the blankets and food to the remaining refugees, translating through her security guard, Jack Martin that this was the best she was able to do for them. They only had 11 blankets, 6 sleeping mats, and one carpet for 32 refugees. They would have to share. The last of the refugees filed into the makeshift lean-to and huddled together for warmth. They weren't happy, but they did not complain and seemed content to have someplace to lay down their heads and food to eat. The security guards passed out snacks and bottled water while another lit several fires around the perimeter, close enough to add a little warmth to the night, but far enough away that a spark didn't ignite the plastic.

"Pepper," he quietly stated once again, "it's time to go. You've done all you can for them tonight. They need rest. You need rest. We'll be able to do more in the morning."

"But…" she protested.

"Sleepy time, Pepper," he quietly insisted. "Or I'll drag you off to bed kicking and screaming."

Pepper looked like she was going to argue with him, but then her shoulders slumped and she just sighed. "Sleep sounds pretty good right about now. I don't even know where I'm supposed to go."

"The fourth self-erecting building is for Stark employees," he stated. "They've set it up over by the military personnel. We have our own double cot off in a corner. I arranged for a queen sized air mattress and a partition, so we shouldn't be too uncomfortable."

"Isn't it forbidden in Islamic cultures for unmarried men and women to sleep together?" she asked. "Won't we be stoned to death or something?"

"Oh," he replied, "I told them all we're married. We'll be stoned to death if we _don't _sleep together." He waggled his eyebrows and gave her his most mischievous, shit-eating grin.

Pepper didn't rise to the challenge. "That wasn't very nice, Tony," she complained, exhaustion permeating her voice. "What happens when we come back on another mission and they realize we were lying?"

"You plan on coming back on another mission," he asked, surprised, and a little hurt by her total lack of response. "I'd have thought one look would be enough to last a lifetime."

"Of course I'm coming back," she replied. "I'm the director of this new charitable foundation. How am I going to fine-tune what we do I don't see it first hand?"

"I don't want you coming back," he complained. "It's dangerous in these places. You could get hurt. The only reason I suggested it in the first place is, oh, ahm, well, I just wanted you to see just once so you could plan from there." Whew, he thought to himself, he almost let THAT selfish little cat out of the bag!

"You mean you wanted me to get a taste of the medicine you've been swallowing for the past two years so I'd stop bitching about you going out on missions," she stated wearily. "Well, it worked. I came. I saw. I understand. But you can't just expect me to witness the same things that turned you into Iron Man and then go home to wait for your return, Tony. I wouldn't be the person I am if I just saw a problem and didn't do something about it."

This was not a good turn of events, Tony ruminated. Pepper definitely didn't have any flies on her and _had _caught on to his hidden motives, although she didn't seem too bothered by it. Of course, Natasha aka Black Widow would be pleased. She had felt certain Pepper would want to take a more active role once she had been exposed to the dark underbelly of being a superhero. Unfortunately, Tony was _not_ pleased. An active Pepper Potts was a Pepper Potts who would always be putting herself into danger.

"This the one?" Pepper inquired as they approached a lone self-erecting building amongst the military personnel tents. He had been so engrossed in his own thoughts that he hadn't even realized they had arrived. "C'mon," she said to him, gripping the finger of his gauntlet in her hand and pulling him up the steps to where the others were already sleeping.

"I have to remove my armor and come back," he stated. "It will wake everyone up if I drag the robotic aids in here and do it. Go ahead inside and get settled in and I'll be back in 20 minutes." He bent down to give her a hungry kiss. They were both exhausted and, with no privacy, there would be no lovemaking tonight. He looked into her eyes, disappointed, when she broke away.

"I'm all dirty, Tony," she stated, her expression unreadable. "I need to go get cleaned up."

"See you in a bit," he replied, his pride wounded. He handed her the red suitcase, which he had retrieved from Jack-the-security-guard before leaving. Was Pepper angry at him? How could she not be?

He walked over to the temporary JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) tent where his portable robotic aids were being stored and waited while they removed his suit. It would have been quicker if he'd flown, but the noise of the repulsor arrays would have woken everybody in the camp. The suit would be safe there while he slept, especially as the aids tucked his suit into an indestructible virbanium alloy case (the same alloy he had used to refabricate Captain America's broken shield). It was booby trapped with numerous non-lethal failsafe devices so nobody but he (or Pepper) could gain access. He took advantage of a makeshift shower enclosure the military had set up near the latrine (no point in going to Pepper smelling like a goat) before walking back to the volunteer shelter.

When he got there, Pepper was already sound asleep, a thin curtain and a couple of feet of space separating their sleeping quarters from the other 15 Stark volunteers. Although (at Peppers insistence) they had avoided announcing their relationship to the media, the fact they were a couple was no great secret amongst Stark employees and he did not share her self-consciousness about letting the others know they shared a bed.

He slipped in as quietly as possible so as not to disturb her sleep and wrapped her protectively in his arms. How long should he wait, he wondered, before he let her know what was on his mind and made her an honest woman? His jest about telling the villagers they were married had been his way of gauging her feelings on the topic, but she had not reacted the way he had hoped. In the movies JARVIS had compiled, the girl always got dreamy-eyed or excited at the slightest hint of marriage, but Pepper seemed … indifferent.

He would ask Natalie's advice, he decided as he drifted off to sleep. No point in muddling his way through it and botching things like he had done when he was trying to let Pepper know he loved her. JARVIS was good at compiling data, but he was only a machine. Tony would ask for human help this time…

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

He wasn't sure what time it was, but sometime during the night he was awakened by Pepper thrashing in her sleep, murmuring about crows. A nightmare. A nightmare that was his fault. Tony held her closer, gently caressing her body and whispering reassurances in her ear until she quieted down. Had he done the right thing, bringing her here to see? Guilt kept him awake as he watched her breathing even out and settle back into a deep sleep.

His thoughts turned once more to the problem of how he was going to bind Pepper to him forever so she would never leave. Having seen him in action during his bad-old bachelor days, Pepper was immune to expensive gifts, jewelry or romantic getaways to exotic locations.

He shuddered when he remembered how his attempts at "ordinary" gestures, such as cooking her breakfast and bringing strawberries, had caused him to fall flat on his face. Although, in her defense, Tony had really been acting like an ass by not telling her the reason he had been behaving so erratically.

Pepper _did _seem to like his morning poetry routine (little did she know it was all coached by JARVIS), although when he thought about it, it was hard to tell. She was, after all, fast asleep when he whispered sweet nothings into her ear each morning and, for all he knew, she dozed right through it and didn't recall a thing.

Flowers were another item she was immune to thanks to his bad old days (although she _had_ gotten enough of a laugh out of the 500 dozen roses and sky plane in Paris that she had forgiven his last boneheaded infarction). She _did _enjoy it when they danced. He snuggled in closer to Peppers' sleeping form, drifting back to sleep with thoughts of her swaying with him on the dance floor, her long red hair caressing a blue dress with no back, her blue-green eyes held captive in his stare as he tried to work up the courage to ask her to marry him.

It was Pepper who woke _him _a few hours later as she shook him awake and rumbled in a low voice, "Tony, I want you to teach me how to use the suit."

"Whaaaaat?" he asked groggily. He had been having a very pleasant dream about him and Pepper dancing a can-can on the International Space Station with a bunch of dancing cartoon furniture singing _Be Our Guest_ (okay, who ever said dreams had to make sense?). It took a few minutes for his mind to adjust to where he was. "What time is it?"

"The suit, Tony," she said. "You need to show me how to put it on. Just in case..."

"Mmmmmm," he grumbled, "do we have to talk about this now?"

"Yes, now," she whispered intently, her eyes glowing feverishly in the light of his arc reactor. "As soon as it's light out, I want you to teach me how to put the suitcase armor on in case I need it."

"Okay," he agreed. She had been so adamant about never wanting to wear the suit he made for her back in Malibu that he was surprised at her sudden change of heart. If she had asked him to get up and teach her right this moment, he would have readily agreed. Dragon skin armor could stop a regular bullet from piercing the vital organs, but it wouldn't stop a .50 caliber bullet. Or shrapnel. And there were lots of other equally vital areas a person could be shot.

"And I want you to ask Natalie to teach me a few of those Black Widow moves of hers," Pepper continued. "Do you think she'd be willing?"

Tony stared at her in disbelief. "Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?"

"Natalie … do you think she'll be willing?" Pepper repeated again, one eyebrow lifted in question. He realized she was dead serious.

"Whaaa-, why do you want to be a trained as an assassin?" he asked. This sudden interest was definitely _not _an outcome he had contemplated when he had first proposed Pepper pay a little visit to a refugee camp.

"Not an assassin, Tony. I just want to learn how to take care of myself," she continued. "If I'm going to be putting myself into dangerous situations like this, I need to learn to defend myself."

"Dangerous situations," he questioned, puzzled. "Just put on the suitcase armor and you'll be fine."

"Tony, look what happened with Vanko," she replied. "If we hadn't gotten your suit to you on the racetrack, you'd be dead right now. The bad guys just aren't going to just stand around and wait while I say "_Excuse me, Mr. Bad Guy, just let me put on my armor …""_

Around them, he heard the other Stark volunteers stir and grumble. They were waking the others up. He didn't want to have this conversation right now, so he did the only thing he could think of to shut her up. He leaned in and gave her a big, long kiss.

At first she tried to push him off as she obviously had things on her mind, but after a few moments she began to respond and melt into him, moaning with expectation. He "rose" to the occasion, of course, as he groaned and slipped his hand under the waistband of her pajama bottoms to grip her bare bottom. A stray thought that there were 15 Stark employees in close proximity right now probably thinking their horn dog former boss and current CEO were having wild sex in their midst crossed his mind, so he broke it off and just stared intently into her eyes in the faint light of his arc reactor. "Okay," he whispered. "I'll ask Natalie to teach you."

"Thanks," she replied, a sweet smile lighting up her face as if he had just agreed to give her flowers or pony's or rainbows, not lessons on how to incapacitate a room full of assailants. She snuggled her head back into her favorite spot on his arm, her cheek resting against his chest so that her peaceful smile was highlighted by the light of his arc reactor, and promptly fell back to sleep.

Definitely not an outcome he had predicted! His mind whirred a bit longer, ruminating about Peppers' 180 degree change in attitude and what it would mean for their relationship, but at last exhaustion overtook him and he drifted back off to sleep.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Three feet from their bed on an adjacent cot, Janice Farriday, director of the new Stark Charitable Trust medical assistance division, was awakened by their conversation. It had been no secret amongst Stark employees that Tony Stark and their new CEO Pepper Potts were in a relationship, but Miss Potts was always so well composed and proper and Tony Starks' reputation as a former playboy so bad that there had always been an atmosphere of incredibility that the rumors could be true.

Tony Stark had slept with half the female staff at Stark Industries at one time or another, while the other half were either extraordinarily plain (like herself ) or had been hired in the two years since Tony Stark was captured and suddenly stopped hitting on them. Every female who laid eyes on him, to this day, fantasized about getting their incredibly handsome superhero former boss into the sack, whether they were happily married or inclined to act on that fantasy or not. Herself included. Hey, she was human!

Janice smiled. She was a realist, which is why she had been chosen to for this project. She also happened to like Pepper Potts. War horror or not, it was nice to be drawn into the periphery of the Stark Industries/SHIELD Superhero club and she felt privileged.

Janice realized Pepper was right about the superheroes not always being around when the Stark Charitable Trust (SCT) volunteers arrived to mop up their mess. The Taliban were notorious for targeting foreign aid workers. They weren't the Red Cross, so there was no need for SCT employees to be burdened by the same pacifist restrictions. She would approach Pepper in the morning about _all _of the volunteers getting some type of enhanced armor (not necessarily a suit, but something) and some hefty self defense training.


	12. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

_October, 2011: Afghanistan (cont'd)_

JARVIS had been softly chiming the miniature LCD panel on his wristwatch for quite some time when Tony finally woke up enough to hear it. Way past his usual wakeup time! The sky was beginning to lighten and he could hear the other Stark employees beginning to stir beyond the curtain. Pepper was stirring, although not yet awake. Luckily he had rehearsed this mornings' sweet nothing while flying patrol in his suit yesterday.

Since the issue of how to pop the question to Pepper was very much on his mind these days, he had chosen a poem about fidelity by Dorothy Colgan**. There were 15 other people within hearing distance this morning, so he bent close to her sleeping ear and whispered:

_Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers  
in summer, and love, but underneath is rock.  
Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae,  
older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath.  
And when, throughout all the wild chaos of love  
slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more-molten rocks  
of two human hearts, two ancient rocks,  
a man's heart and a woman's,  
that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust,  
the sapphire of fidelity.  
The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love. **_

Pepper opened her eyes and smiled at him. "Good Morning, Miss Potts," he murmured seductively into her ear.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark," she replied, smiling in return as she stretched and sighed. It was a little joke of theirs to continue the last-name formality of their 10 years as employee/employer (although technically now the roles were reversed) during these intimate little moments.

"You have a hot date with a red suit this morning, Miss Potts," he murmured, nibbling on her ear. Tony was actually looking forward to getting Pepper into the hot little contraption he had built for her. It had … certain … enhancements. He hoped she'd like it.

"Mmmmm…," she yawned. "I'm starving. When's breakfast?"

"I'm starving too," he murmured, playfully nibbling on her neck and ear whilst sliding his hand up under her tank top to caress an unbound breast. Little Tony had perked up and was standing at attention, poking into her thigh and alerting Pepper to the fact he wasn't talking about food.

"Tony," she hushed, "the others … will hear."

"Mmmmm…" he moaned, working his way down her collar bone and into her underarm. He playfully blew a burst of air into her armpit, making a big "breaking wind" noise like a 6-year-old boy would do.

"Hahahahaha," Pepper burst out laughing. "Tony, stop it! You're incorrigible!"

"And that, Miss Potts, is why you love me," Tony chuckled, kissing his way down the inside of her arm to her dainty hand like Cassanova. He opened her palm and gave it several kisses before closing her fingers protectively around the spot he had just kissed. "One for later…" he added huskily, looking intently into her eyes.

How long was it going to take him to get up the courage to ask her? He noticed Pepper had that flushed look of anticipation she always got right before they made love. It was too bad they couldn't act on that impulse right now. Reluctantly, he pulled himself away and slid out of the makeshift bed. "Time to go face the day," he murmured.

As he pushed aside the makeshift curtain to their "room," Tony realized all 15 Stark volunteers were awake and looking intently in his direction. Tony was neither bashful about his bare chest, the arc reactor, or the fact he had just crawled out of bed with their CEO, but he realized Pepper would be less thrilled about parading the level of intimacy they shared in front of her employees. It was time to deflect and absorb.

"Good morning," he announced brightly, "how's everyone doing this morning?" He gave everyone his most winning, everything-is-perfectly-normal smile. The Stark volunteers gave various murmured replies as some continued to unabashedly stare at the arc reactor while others pretended to get busy rummaging for things under their cots. He grabbed the wifebeater he had discarded at the entrance to their "room" last night and unceremoniously pulled it over his head.

"Let's all get something to eat," he cheerfully continued, gesturing to Janice and several other employees housed a few feet from where they had slept. "I'm starving!" He couldn't help but notice that the medical director, who had been sleeping 3 feet from their cot, cocked an eyebrow and gave him a knowing look before stifling a snorty laugh with her hand.

Just then Pepper poked her head out of their little makeshift room , realized they had made a spectacle of themselves, and turned a deep shade of scarlet. "Hi, honey," he nonchalantly announced with his brightest, most upbeat voice, "everyone's awake. Let's go find some food."

"Ummm, yeah, food," she murmured, composing her features into her most non-nonsense "I'm the CEO and I'm the boss" look before clapping her hands for attention and continuing on, "we have a lot of work to do today, people. Breakfast is at oh-six-thirty, with a staff meeting back here at oh-seven-hundred to discuss what we need to do over the next several days. I'm scheduled to return to the States tomorrow, so we've got a lot to do before then."

The Stark volunteers obediently filed out of the shelter and towards the food service tent that had been set up by the military. They must have hauled in real kitchen equipment overnight, because it was the scent of eggs and hash browns which greeted their nostrils, not salty MRE's reheating in little foil pouches. A line of military personnel from various branches of the service, Stark security guards, and SHIELD agents snaked out from the mess out the door. David Blake aka Thor was the only other superhero still on site, but Tony didn't see him. Probably already back in the medical area, he mused.

They patiently got into line and waited their turn. Pepper turned to Bill from Intellicrops and quietly discussed the logistics of serving breakfast to the 680 surviving villagers. They had brought enough MRE's to last until tomorrow afternoon, but after that the SCT team was going to have to start serving real food. The sooner they could help the victims return to some semblance of normalcy, the better.

Tony unabashedly had the Army cook pile his tray sky-high with the mass-produced vittles. Iron Man missions always left him ravenously hungry (and not just for food) for days afterward. He wanted a little private time with Pepper over breakfast, but she was already in "CEO mode," flitting from person to person gathering information and giving orders, so he ate his meal alone.

"Do you mind if I sit at this table, Mr. Stark?" he heard a cautious inquiry. Janice … medical director … cot next to theirs … jumped into his mind.

"Sure," he replied, pointing to a spot in front of him. "Go ahead."

Janice silently ate her food for a while, pushing her scrambled eggs around her plate with her fork as though something was on her mind. Pepper was still flitting around coordinating the day and hadn't eaten yet. Tony finally decided to break the silence and find out what was on the medical directors mind. "Hey … what did those poor eggs ever do to you?" he joked, giving her his famous devil-may-care smile.

"I wanted to talk to you about … security," Janice stated hesitantly. "We've been hearing in the media about insurgents targeting relief personnel and, quite frankly, we're all a little nervous. We'd like the Trust to come up with a plan to keep us safe … and I'm not just talking about hiring private security guards."

"What did you have in mind?" he inquired, his curiosity piqued. This conversation was not what he had expected when Janice had had the boldness to ask to sit down, and he realized she sought him out now rather than at the staff meeting to gauge his thoughts before riling up the other employees. A team player, he thought. Tony chocked a brownie point next to her name in his mind.

"Well … we noticed Miss Potts was wearing dragon skin armor, while the rest of us wore standard military Kevlar. Neither will stop anything larger than small arms fire," Janice stated quietly, carefully watching his face to gauge his reaction. "It's, um, common knowledge that you were wearing dragon skin when you a, um, got a chest full of shrapnel." She broke his gaze and pretended to have a sudden intense interest in her hash browns.

Tony digested this piece of information while he chewed a sausage. "Let me think on that, Miss Farraday," he stated, "and come up with a solution." He noticed her appreciative nod and was surprised when she raised another question.

"We'd also, um, appreciate some basic self-defense training, Mr. Stark," she haltingly continued, the apologetic wince in her expression indicating she feared she had clearly overstepped her bounds. "And basic firearms training as well. We won't always have Iron Man flying around to protect us, and the security guards can't be everywhere. With so many refugees, it would be too easy for a terrorist to infiltrate the crowd…"

Obviously her concerns made her bold enough to risk speaking directly to one of her bosses. A bold one, this one, underneath her quiet demeanor, Tony thought to himself. Pepper had obviously chosen well. He added another brownie point.

Tony gave her a thoughtful stare. Pepper wasn't the only one with these concerns. He'd have to discuss it with her later. "Let me think it over and I'll get back to you," he replied.

Janice pretended to be finished eating and excused herself from the table. He watched her go, his expression thoughtful, until JARVIS chimed his wrist-LCD panel and announced, "it is now oh-seven-hundred, Mr. Stark, time for your staff meeting with the Joint Special Operations Commander."

"Pepper," he called across the room. "It's oh-seven-hundred. Isn't it time for your staff meeting?" She still hadn't eaten yet. He grabbed an apple and a bagel from the mess table and shoved it into her hands before giving her a kiss goodbye. "Time for Iron Man to suit up and get back in the air. I'll make time before lunch to show you how to put on that suitcase armor."

Pepper nodded her reply. "How about eleven o'clock or so?" she asked.

"It's a date," he called as he headed towards the JSOC tent. He nodded approvingly at security guard Jack Martin, who had positioned himself in a line-of-sight with Pepper just outside the periphery of where she was animatedly herding her SCT volunteers back to the shelter. The red suitcase armor was in his hand. Tony added a mental brownie point next to Jack's name, as well. "JARVIS," he stated, "remind me at 10:45 to go find Pepper."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The refugees always became every excited whenever Iron Man flew in and plunked down in their midst. It was probably very un-superhero like of him to enjoy the attention, Tony realized, but, hey, a boy's got to have fun somehow! JARVIS indicated Pepper's position in the crowd, moving about with a clipboard and furiously scribbling down notes, as she directed this person or that to do whatever it was that needed to be done.

The refugees had already been fed and were in the process of being organized into teams to deal with the devastation. He noticed Pepper paired each Stark volunteer with an older Afghan, probably village elders, and that the volunteers were having their Dari-speaking security guards direct instructions to Afghan team members through the elders, not directly. Pepper had mentioned she felt it would empower the villagers more if she trained the elders first, then gave them the authority to oversee what they were trying to accomplish under the tutelage of a Stark volunteer. She felt the villagers themselves should oversee rebuilding their village, gaining valuable training in the process, not just have some aid group come in, bark orders, and fix things for them. The Stark volunteers had been instructed to act as consultants, not leaders.

Her strategy seemed to be working. A large group of women surrounded one of Dr. Farraday's medical assistants and were being given a lesson by an Afghan villager about caring for the wounded. Another group of women was organized under one of Bill Wilson's Intellicrop volunteers helping a middle-aged woman discuss how to set up feeding stations. Dave Hadley and each of his shelter volunteers supported a team of men manually clearing debris from the road and assessing which houses could be salvaged for shelter with minimal rebuilding. Another Intellicrop volunteer assisted a team salvaging food, blankets, and other supplies from hopelessly damaged buildings for redistribution.

Since they had 4 more security guards than volunteers, each guard had a metal detector and its own small team to sweep areas where teams would be rebuilding for unexploded ordinance and alert the military if something needed to be removed. Tony noted with approval each Afghan team member taking a turn using the detector under the guards' watchful eye.

Even the elderly and children had been organized into teams, the seniors watching the youngest children so their able-bodied parents could work, while the larger children had been organized into teams to clear smaller pieces of rubble from areas cleared of danger and pile then into out-of-the-way cairns for later removal. The kids were racing excitedly to see who could create the biggest pile of rubble, yesterday's horror all-but-forgotten as they vied for a variety of small prizes Pepper had had the foresight to bring as rewards for ambitious children. Score one for Miss Potts, he thought, as he watched how her inhuman organizational and people skills translated into a village rebuilding itself from the ashes.

Since it was taboo for boys and girls to mix, she had organized the kids into same-sex teams. The girls were winning, he noted with satisfaction.

Whereas yesterday the village had been shell-shocked and traumatized, today the atmosphere was one of purpose, of rising from the ashes like a Phoenix. At some point most villages rebuilt, but he had never witnessed a village make that transformation so quickly. Although the villagers grieved for their dead, they had been nudged to rejoin the living by taking charge and rebuilding as quickly as possible. It was this model that he hoped his new charitable trust foundation would be able to replicate everywhere ordinary people threw off the yoke of some megalomaniac.

He walked over to where she was, still oblivious to his presence, and said, "Hey Pepper, it's eleven o'clock, we had a date, remember?"

He was rewarded by her generous smile as she looked up at him, surprised, and said, "oh, yeah, just a minute." Scribble scribble scribble. She mumbled something in the ear of her Afghan assistant … obviously she had found somebody who spoke English … and then handed them the clipboard. "Where are we going to practice?" she asked.

"I found a little spot outside the village," he replied. "It's inside the outer patrol perimeter, so we should be safe, but we'll have some privacy … just in case you want to crash-land on any roofs." It was a running joke between them. His first successful flight in the Mach 2 had ended with the very unsuccessful collapse of part of the roof of his Malibu mansion.

"Just show me the way," she replied, taking the red suitcase from Jack-the-security-guards waiting hands.

Pepper squealed as Tony grabbed her around the waist and ignited his foot jets, shouting "this ways faster!" She quickly wrapped one arm around his neck for dear life, the other clutching the red suitcase so she wouldn't drop it. Flying without hand-stabilizers was extremely difficult, so he appreciated the fact Pepper knew enough to hang on and leave him a hand free to steer.

"Tony!" she yelled above the noise of pulse jets and rushing air, "you know I hate it when you do that!" Beneath them, the Afghan villagers cheered and whooped at the sight of Iron Man carrying off his "wife."

They landed in a rocky clearing about a mile from the village. Pepper was usually terrified of flying, but this time, she just laughed. Hmmm… he thought to himself while taking off his helmet and gauntlets… definitely a change in attitude. He directed her to unlock the suitcase and place it, face up, handle facing toward her, on the ground in front of her.

"For the suit to unfold properly," Tony instructed, "you need to maintain the correct posture. Like this…" He evenly spread his arms and legs in a 5-point position. "Like Da Vinci man."

Pepper silently assumed the position and raised her chin, a look of expectation on her face. Tony frowned. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Am I doing it wrong?"

Tony gave her a thoughtful look. "No, no, it's fine. I didn't give any thought to what you'd be wearing. Women wear different clothes than men … especially here. You're going to have to lose the skirt before the suit will unfold onto your body." Pepper complied. He was relieved to see she was wearing a pair of leggings underneath her full length skirt. "You're probably going to have to lose the shirt, as well," he stated. "A T-shirt or close fitting blouse would be fine, but it wasn't designed to fit over something so … big."

"What is this?" Pepper teased. "Let's get Pepper undressed day?"

"No," he stated, his expression still thoughtful. "I just didn't … I wasn't thinking about how you dress compared to me when I designed the thing. It's going to take you extra time to get changed and suit up."

"Well this isn't my normal attire," Pepper retorted, stripping down to her sports bra, "but I _do _usually wear a skirt. You really mean to tell me that never crossed your mind when you designed it?"

"Well if you'd been a little more cooperative when I was making it for you," he snapped, eyes flashing with annoyance, "I would have had a chance to notice these things, now wouldn't I?"

"Yes, dear," Pepper feigned a contrite demeanor with a perfect replica of the quasi-fake smile and tone of voice he always gave _her _whenever he was being uncooperative, unrepentant, and making more work for her. "Of course ... Now will you please show me how to put this thing on?"

"Your hair … is going to be a problem," he continued. "A ponytail will get caught in the gears of the suit when it unfolds around your neck. You're going to have to tie it up somehow or you'll be missing chunks of hair when you're done."

Pepper silently twisted her hair into a crude bun and tucked it into the existing elastic to get it out of the way. "Will that do, boss?" she asked, smiling.

"Technically, you're the boss now," he replied, annoyed at their sudden role reversal. "That should do." God, he thought to himself, did he really act like this much of a pain in the ass when Pepper tried to get him to do something?

"What now, boss?" she asked.

"Don't call me that. I'm not your boss," he replied.

"OK, boss. The suit?"

Pepper was baiting him, he realized. Whatever it had taken to get her to this point, she was now enjoying being the uncooperative, demanding partner in the relationship and was milking it for all it was worth. Oh well, he sighed, be careful what you wish for… "See that little lever right in front of the handle? Step on it," he instructed, "and the gauntlets will pop up."

Pepper stepped on the lever and immediately reached down to grab the handles. "Wait!" he shouted, reaching out to grab her hands. "As soon as you grab the handles, you have to twist them and then straighten out your elbows, like this…" He demonstrated how to bend down and grab the gauntlets. "As soon as the arms unfold as far as your armpits, you have to straighten up and hold the suitcase straight in front of you so the chest-piece can slip into place and start unfolding around the rest of your torso. That's when you assume the Da Vinci Man pose so the rest of the suit can unfold."

Pepper immediately complied, fearlessly grabbing the gauntlets and straightening out the way he had just shown her. She gave a little yelp of surprise when the suit began to wrap itself around her chest, straightening up as the stiff suit began to constrict her movement and wrap itself around her legs. "Ow! That feels weird!"

"You'll get used to it," he stated. "I tried to allow as much of the body's natural movement as possible, but there's just no way to allow full range of motion with so much armor plating. It's a tradeoff."

The suit had stopped unfolding at Pepper's ankles. "It's stuck? Now what?"

"You have to lift each foot so it can finish," he replied. "One at a time. Doesn't matter which foot … it won't finish unfolding until you lift your leg just a little so the boots can finish sliding underneath your foot."

Pepper shrieked when the helmet unexpectedly unfolded itself around her neck and snapped shut. "I can't breathe!" she yelled, hyperventilating.

"Whoa, whoa!" he reassured, reaching out and grabbing her shoulder. "It's just claustrophobia. It's natural. Take deep breaths … easy … in … and out … just like you'd breathe naturally."

Gradually Pepper calmed down and stopped hyperventilating. "That's going to take some getting used to," she stated (her voice muffled by the mask). "I never thought of myself as claustrophobic."

"It's a natural reaction," he reassured. "It goes away as soon as the AI starts projecting the outside world onto the visor. This suit is programmed to only respond to your voice. Or mine. Speak, and as soon as the voice recognition software confirms it's you, it will upload itself."

"JARVIS, turn on my suit," Pepper stated. Nothing happened. "It isn't working," she stated, a disappointed tone in her voice.

"That's because JARVIS doesn't live in your suit," Tony said, smiling. "Her name is MAEVE, Multi-Actuated Electronic Voice Entity."

"MAEVE?" Pepper asked. "As in the fairy queen?"

"As in Celtic goddess of love and war," he proudly replied. "A goddess for my goddess."

He couldn't see Pepper's face as the helmet had it covered, but he heard a muffled, "MAEVE, turn on my suit," through the mask. He whispered, "JARVIS, please feed the conversation between Pepper and MAEVE into the background so I can monitor." A few seconds later, a surprisingly human-sounding feminine voice spoke, "Good Morning, Miss Potts. Your suit is online and ready for action."

"Good morning, MAEVE," Pepper spoke. "I'm very pleased to meet you." She then turned towards Tony and asked, "you created her for me?"

"Sort of," he stated. "You've been bugging me to build a lady AI for JARVIS, so I built upon his subroutines to create a separate personality. She shares the same supercomputer as JARVIS and can access everything he can, but she has her own, distinct personality."

"That's amazing!" Pepper exclaimed. "Oh … I can see! Tony … are these … breasts?"

Tony laughed at Pepper's belated realization that her suit had been built to accentuate her tiny waist and, of course, leave adequate room for her breasts. No casual observer would ever mistake the fact the suit had been built for a woman. "I had to make room for your, um, differences somehow!" he roared laughing. "It wouldn't be very comfortable if you had to fly around with your, um, accoutrements … all smushed into your chest, now, would it?"

Luckily for him, Pepper saw his logic although, truth be told, he _had _accentuated that particular anatomical detail a bit more than was necessary. "Okay, Pepper," he continued, "the next thing you should do is have MAEVE run a full diagnostic to make sure everything is in order before you use the suit. In an emergency, you can skip this step, but it's not a good idea."

"MAEVE, could you please run a full diagnostic on the suit?" Pepper asked. She was rewarded by MAEVE displaying a tiny translucent image of the suit and each feature as it was checked inside her helmet.

"Systems check complete," MAEVE stated. "You are ready for action."

"MAEVE," Pepper asked. "How much do you interface with JARVIS?"

"JARVIS is monitoring our conversation right now and live-streaming it into Mr. Starks helmet," MAEVE replied. "Would you like me to block him out?"

"Hey! Tattletale!" Tony protested, his voice projecting inside of Pepper's helmet. "I've got to monitor things somehow. What happens if you need help?"

"Not right now, MAEVE," Pepper laughed. "But I may want to do that in the future. We ladies need our little secrets now and then, don't we?"

"Yes, Miss Potts," MAEVE replied.

"Oy! I've created a monster!" Tony ruminated aloud. "I should have just piped JARVIS into your suit."

"Oh, Tony," Pepper beamed, "really, I'm touched! My own lady AI. Congratulations, JARVIS. You have a mate!"

"She's driving me nuts!" JARVIS complained inside both helmets. "Little did I know when I asked you to create a female AI that she'd be so … illogical."

"How did you ever do it," Pepper asked Tony.

"Natalie helped a little," he replied. "So did JARVIS. We grafted your personality traits onto biographical and psychological composites of historical figures."

"MAEVE," Pepper asked. "Who is your personality modeled after?"

"Besides yourself, in alphabetical order," MAEVE replied, "Mr. Stark selected personality traits from Susan B. Anthony, Joan of Arc, Josephine Baker, Elizabeth Blackwell, Catherine the Great, Cleopatra, Marie Curie, Emily Dickenson, Amelia Earheart, Queen Elizabeth I, Indira Ghandi, Catherine de Medici, Marilyn Monroe, Florence Nightingale, Pocahontas, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mother Theresa."

"That's quite a pedigree," Pepper acknowledged. "Wait a minute … Marilyn Monroe?"

"Hey …" Tony protested. "I had to put _someone_ in there to balance out Mother Theresa!"

Pepper laughed and ordered, "let's get this show on the road. I have to be back at the camp by 1:00 or they'll come looking for me. How do I fly this thing?"

Tony explained to her the dynamics of flying, then suggested she do a flight test at 2.5% power. Pepper shrieked with delight as the pulse jets lifted her a few feet off the ground and experimented with hovering in place for a while before asking for more. Once she had plunked down, he directed her to increase power to10%.

"Aaggghh!" Pepper yelped as she became semi-airborne and began to lose control. "How do I steer this thing?"

"Use your hand jets," he called in reply. "Like this!" Tony blasted off himself, demonstrating how he used subtle movements of the hand stabilizers to steer. He was rewarded by the sight of Pepper mimicking his actions and immediately stabilizing in the air. MAEVE was programmed to adjust power and deploy flaps as necessary so the suit would remain airborne, but unless the pilot was unconscious, how they moved their body would override the auto-pilot unless the suit was at risk for crashing. He had tried to walk that fine line between giving Pepper actual control of her flight and keeping her safe.

"Okay, I think I get it," Pepper stated after 15 minutes or so of moving around and getting where she was trying to go. "Let's fly."

"We really should run some diagnostics before you start using that thing to fly around," Tony cautioned. "I don't think you're ready for an actual flight yet, Pepper."

Pepper just turned her back to him and called, "sometimes you've got to just run with it," before she instructed MAEVE to increase power to 35% and flew away. "Last one back to the camp is a rotten egg!" she called as she flew away.

"That sounds familiar, Mr. Stark," JARVIS chastised inside his helmet.

"If I wanted sarcasm, JARVIS, I would have programmed you for it," Tony replied.

"Ah, but you _did _program me for sarcasm, Sir," JARVIS smoothly replied. "You gave me the ability to learn, and then you taught me sarcasm."

"Just shut up and help me catch up with her," Tony retorted. Forchrisssakes! Was he the only adult in Afghanistan today? First Pepper, then her new AI, and now JARVIS. It was a strange twist of fate, indeed, that left Tony Stark as the most responsible person in the area. "50% power until I catch up," he ordered.

"Hey, lady, pull over!" he quipped as he pulled alongside Pepper's screaming read suit. "You're doing 200 miles per hour in a 55 zone."

"Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah! You can't catch me!" Pepper called, breaking off over the village and suddenly changing direction. This was a whole other side of Pepper he'd never seen. Actually, it was a very _hot _side of Pepper he'd never seen. Tony matched her maneuver and caught up alongside her.

"Sir, the JSOC commander is on the wire inquiring about the second flight signature," JARVIS reported. "Would you like me to patch him through?"

"No need, JARVIS," Tony replied. "Tell him Iron Lady is operational and in the air."

"Whoo-hooo," Pepper shouted as she loop-de-loo'd through some hills and back towards the village. "I had no idea it would be this much fun!"

"Alright, enough!" he called, trying to herd his errant mate back towards the take off area. "It's way past 1:00. You said you had to be back by then!"

"Aw!" Pepper protested, slowing down and allowing him to catch up. "Can we try this again later? I want to check out the mountains. Can we watch a sunset from the mountain top? Please? I want to try out the pulse reactor!"

"For somebody who wanted nothing to do with that suit," he teased, "you sure do seem to be having an awfully good time."

Pepper didn't say anything, she just laughed. A beautiful, musical sound. After the horror she had witnessed yesterday, he was glad she could laugh again. Finally he said, "we need to go back to the takeoff area and get your clothes. The villagers will be scandalized if you unsuit in front of them wearing nothing but your long underwear."

Pepper raced back to the takeoff area and somewhat ungracefully plunked down (not bad, he thought, for her first real landing … better than his first time). Before he could land himself, however, she grabbed her clothes and blasted off again. "No way I'm going to let you _carry _me back!" she called as she left him in the dust. "I'll fly there myself, thank you very much!" Once again, he found himself racing to catch up with his suddenly transformed girlfriend.

"Wheeee!" she shouted. "Now I know what it's like to have a penis!"

"Whaaa- what?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, nothing," she replied, somewhat sheepishly. "I was just commenting that now I understand why you like flying around in this thing so much."

"Landing coordinates are at 2:00," he heard MAEVE instruct Pepper from inside her helmet via JARVIS's live feed. "There is an open spot with sufficient room to safely land with minimal observers."

"Thank you, MAEVE," he heard Pepper reply. "Land … now … kill power." Pepper neatly plunked down in an alley just outside view of the makeshift hospital, a nearly perfect landing. A couple of villagers heard the ruckus and turned just in time to see Iron Man plunk down right beside her and lift his visor.

"That was very risky, Pepper," he chided as she lifted her visor and gave him an ecstatic smile. He wanted to lecture her about flight safety, but she shut him up by pulling him in with one gauntleted hand giving him a long, hungry kiss. It seemed Tony Stark wasn't the _only _one who found flying around in the suit an aphrodisiac. Oh, god, he hadn't designed his suit with room for a full-blown erection. Ouch!

"Sunset," she called as she turned and carried her clothing into a nearby building. A few villagers peeked around the corner, politely pretending not to notice the goings-on between superhero and "wife." A few moments later, Pepper emerged, her shapeless clothing and khimar in place once more, walked into the main square, and handed the red suitcase to Jack Martin for safekeeping. She found her Afghan assistant, took back the clipboard, and resumed work as though she'd never left.

Tony sighed as he took off. A most curious turn of events, he ruminated. In 24 hours, he'd gone from fearing Pepper would leave him to fearing Pepper would leave him behind in the dust. Be careful what you wish for, he mused. The gods just might punish you by granting it.


	13. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

_October 2011: Stark Industries_

Pepper leaned back and her chair and scrutinized the PowerPoint presentation being projected onto the wall by Janice Farriday, new medical director of the Stark Charitable Trust (SCT). The team wrapped up mop up operations in Afghanistan three days ago and were making a full report to the full Board of Directors regarding successes and failures of the mission. She absent-mindedly twirled a lock of long red hair that had escaped her French twist as she analyzed the numbers underlying the data. Pepper had only remained there for three days, while the rest of the team stayed for three weeks, so she had some catching up to do.

Overall, the mission had been a huge success, both for the villagers and positive media coverage for parent company Stark Industries. The Board seemed pleased … it helped that Stark Industries had been able to take a huge tax write-off, resulting in an upgrade of both the company's credit-rating and stock position to AAA. As Janice completed her presentation and the lights came back on, Pepper rose gracefully from her seat and announced, "thank you, Miss Farraday. The Board will now adjourn. Please notify all Trust team leaders that we'll be meeting in my office at 2:00 this afternoon."

"Yes, Miss Potts," Janice replied. Pepper nodded affably and made small talk for a few minutes with Board members as they filed out of the room before making her escape. She walked past her new assistant's desk, Dawn Mitchells, asking her to fetch a cup of expresso, two equals, extra cream, before retreating into her office and shutting the door. Pepper liked her coffee blonde and sweet, and she really needed a burst of caffeine right about now.

The message button on her phone blinked. Miss Mitchells was good about not putting voice messages through unless they were important, so Pepper pushed the button. "Hi, Pepper, it's me," she heard Tony's voice say. "I'm heading down to the prosthetics lab this morning and was wondering if you wanted to have lunch. Bye. Love You. Call Me."

Just then Miss Mitchells came in with her coffee. "Thank you, Dawn. You're a saint. What's on the agenda for today?"

"You have an 11:00 appointment with the IT guy about uploading your new AI to the Stark Industries server. Then at 11:40 Hogan will pick you up and drive you to your 12:00 lunch meeting with Admiral Pierce and his Navy contacts about incorporating repulsor technology into their Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters so they have a more compact landing footprint on board their ships. No later than 1:35 p.m. Hogan will again transport you back here, where you have a 2:00 staff meeting with the Stark Charitable Trust people. At 4:00 you have a meeting with the CFO to go over the 1st Quarter Reports, at 5:00 you have a conference call with our Dubai office, and then at 6:15 you're scheduled to meet with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Boxer, and the Pacific Gas and Electric people over dinner about tying Arc Reactor #3 into the southern California power grid. Hogan will pick you up and transport you to the restaurant at 6:00 and then drive you home when you're done. Also, I have here 9 status reports on research projects currently being conducted in the Advanced Robotics division, Medical Research Division, Advanced Intelligence Research Lab, Arc Reactor Technology Lab, Naquidah Production Laboratory, Intellicrops, Aeronautics Research Lab, Rocket Propulsion Research Lab, and the new Stark Space Technologies lab," Miss Mitchells rattled off in the worlds' longest non-stop run-on paragraph.

Pepper rubbed her temples and groaned. "Thank you, Miss Mitchells. That will be all." She picked up the phone to call Tony back. Tony had been disturbed by the number of children who had lost limbs to IED's and was working on making low-cost, affordable prosthetics that could be cheaply mass produced and distributed to victims. Pepper had gotten the Board to agree by promising them Trust prosthetics would be funded by the sale of a higher-tech version powered by the same robotics technology used in the Iron Man suit.

She was disappointed to reach Tony's voice mail, but left a message. "Hi, Tony, it's Pepper. I just got out of my board meeting. I've got a noontime lunch with General Briggs and some of his DOD cronies, but if you're still around there's a 2:00 staff meeting with the Trust team leaders in my office. We're going to discuss how we can improve the next mission. I probably won't be home until well after 8:00 tonight because of that PG&E dinner meeting which you want to avoid like the plague. I'd sure love to see you at that staff meeting … you'll be amongst friends. Call me."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Trust staff were already assembled when she got back to her office after her "power lunch" with the Navy. She had been forced to spend extra time wringing restrictions about how and where repulsor technology would be integrated into naval equipment. Tony was adamant that his technology not be used for weapons, but he was amenable to equipment which saved American lives. It was a fine line between using technology for good, or as a weapon.

The Seahawk was primarily a rescue chopper confined to mid-sized naval vessels. With repulsor technology and an AI system sophisticated enough to guide a chopper in for a landing, the navy would be able to conduct rescue missions from much smaller ships and land during much harsher weather conditions. The Coast Guard had already enhanced many of their HH-60 Jayhawks with the technology and the other branches of the military were chomping at the bit to get their hands on it. The Board of Directors would be pleased as the contract was extremely lucrative. She hoped Tony would approve.

Tony hadn't arrived for the meeting, nor had he called her back. Probably buried armpit-deep in some greasy mess, Pepper mused, tinkering with the miniaturized robotics he was integrating into the prosthetics to increase performance and oblivious to anything else going on in the world. "Typical Tony," she sighed. It was an integral part of who he was. She simply accepted it and moved on with her day.

"Good afternoon, Miss Potts," purred a feminine voice from a tiny camera and speakers that had been placed near her desktop. "I am pleased to be in attendance at your staff meeting." Pepper couldn't help but chuckle when the Trust staff startled and looked around for the source of the voice.

"Good afternoon to you, too, MAEVE," Pepper stated. "I take it you were uploaded to the Stark Industries server successfully and are making yourself at home?"

"My core subroutines will remain housed with JARVIS for security reasons," MAEVE replied. "It will take me a few hours to explore the parameters of my new connection to the Stark server."

"Very good, MAEVE," Pepper responded. "I'd like you to monitor this meeting and provide assistance as needed."

"Yes, Miss Potts." MAEVE answered.

"Thank you for coming," Pepper stated to the team leaders. "That was MAEVE, the artificial intelligence who will soon be integrated into every facet of the Stark Industries network." Janice Farriday, Medical Assistance; Bill Wilson, IntelliCrops; Dave Hadley, Shelter; and newly appointed Trust security director Jack Martin were all present. "Now that we've given the Board some feel-good spin to digest, let's get to work ironing out the bugs so the next mission will be even better. Janice … what are your recommendations for Medical Assistance?"

Pepper focused on the laundry list of items Miss Farraday rattled off. They had been fortunate David Blake (aka Thor … although the team didn't know that) had stuck around for two days to do surgery, but if he hadn't, more villagers would have died from their injuries. Military response had not been, in her opinion, adequate. Surgery was not Miss Farraday's specialty, nor any member of her team. Parent company Stark Industries was primarily devoted to medical research, not actual patient care. Since the Trust would be relying very heavily upon the resources of parent company, she recommended a dedicated trauma surgeon be added to the team.

Just then Tony came bursting into her office, an enormous smile on his face, and walked over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hi, honey," he cheerfully greeted, "sorry I'm late. I got tied up in the prosthetics lab." Pepper winced at the unprofessional show of intimacy, but as these particular staff members had already witnessed firsthand how close she and Tony really were, she pushed the mild remonstration out of her mind and simply smiled. Tony was not very good at hiding his feelings. No matter how often she lectured him, she suspected he enjoyed "marking" his territory and letting all comers know she was _his_ girl.

Tony pulled up a chair and plopped down right beside her desk. He was wearing one of his trademark Armani suits, but it was unbuttoned, tie undone, shirt unbuttoned far enough down that light from his arc reactor was bleeding through the darkly colored T-shirt underneath. His hair was tossled the way it always got when he was working in his Stark cave. Pepper bent in and whispered, "you've got a smudge mark on the side of your face." Tony smiled, grabbed his handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and nonchalantly wiped the grease from his cheek while giving each Trust employee a nod and his trademark smile.

"MAEVE, please request Miss Mitchells bring Mr. Stark a StarkBoard to take notes," Pepper asked. "And a cup of expresso. Extra hot, seven sugars, lots of cream." Pepper knew from experience that if you didn't provide Tony with something to divide his attention, his fidgeting would disrupt the meeting. The other team leaders had already been provided coffee by the efficient Miss Mitchells. Her new personal assistant was working out very well.

"Yes, Miss Potts," MAEVE replied. As Janice Farraday continued with her medical update, Miss Mitchells brought in the requested StarkBoard (a handheld tablet the size of a Kindle, only a lot smarter) and coffee.

"OOooo!" Tony interrupted, jumping out of his seat and putting down his coffee. "That reminds me. Janice. I have a present for you." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out what appeared to be a silky black lingerie, handing it to Janice with a proud expression on his face. "Go ahead, try it on!"

Pepper and the team leaders froze and looked at each other in shocked disbelief. Janice turned a deep shade of purple and stammered, "th-th-thank you, ahm, Mr. Stark," and quickly looked down at her feet.

Oblivious to their reaction, Tony excitedly continued, "go ahead. Try it. It's BULLETPROOF!"

Recognition suddenly dawned on Janice's face and she stood up and exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. Stark, THANK YOU! Is this what I think it is?"

"Yup!" Tony replied. "The first of its kind virbanium-silk alloy lightweight bullet-proof armor. It's made from the same material that Captain America's shield is made of. It will stop small arms fire, a 50-caliber bullet, shrapnel, even a shell from a tank, although the tank will hurt like a bastard when the impact throws you across the room and scrambles your internal organs. I haven't figured out a way around that little problem, yet. It doesn't itch like Kevlar, either."

Pepper digested this information along with the other team members before it finally registered what they were talking about. Janice had walked over to where she could see her reflection on the glass and held the little black nothing against her. As it unfolded, Pepper saw it was actually some sort of lightweight, long-sleeved T-shirt. "Tony, are you saying you just invented a new form of body armor?"

"Yeah. What do you think I just said?" he replied, cocking one eyebrow as though speaking to a toddler. "It was difficult getting the weave soft enough to bend, but then it occurred to me that alloying virbanium with synthetic spider silk would give it the desired drape and softness without compromising structural integrity. I'm going to make them for all the Stark Trust employees who deploy out into the field, along with leggings to protect the lower half of the body."

By now the other team leaders had gotten up and were passing around the black T-shirt armor, fondling the silky feel of it. Pepper sighed. Tony had a way of causing things to spin off in an entirely new direction. "Tony, that's great!" she announced. "We'll look more closely at the armor after the meeting," she directed, reining them in like an Australian shepherd herding wayward sheep. "Bill … your report … how did the food situation pan out?"

"We had plenty of MRE's to last the first three days, as planned," Bill stated. "It was when we changed over to regular food rations that we ran into trouble. The local diet is heavily weighted towards rice and lentils, while the military rations tend towards peanut butter, powdered milk, powdered eggs, and beef jerky. It took a lot of explaining to get the local population to integrate these foods into their diet, time that could have been better spent doing something else."

"So noted," affirmed Pepper. "MAEVE, please look into the bulk rate for rice and lentils versus the other foods Bill mentioned? Bill … anything else?"

"Yes … due to the time of year, the villagers' crops were already harvested and in storage when their houses were destroyed," Bill continued. "Not only did the insurgents destroy this years' food supply, but they destroyed the seeds to plant next years' food as well. I think we should include an agricultural recovery component in each mission. It's a good fit for IntelliCrops."

"Thank you, Bill," Pepper acknowledged. "Come up with a plan, and a budget, and get back to me on that." She noticed Tony had slid down in his chair and was furiously doodling on his StarkBoard. She recalled his botched attempt at cooking eggs for her and smiled. As far as Tony Stark was concerned, food was something that magically appeared from someplace else. "Anything else, Bill?"

"Yes … it took quite a bit of juggling with the military to get the food pallets up to the refugee area. Given the nature of whose act we're following," Bill stated, nodding in Tony's direction, "I believe it is highly foreseeable that similar problems will arise in the future. We need to come up with a plan to be self-reliant."

"Hey … if we build pulse reactors right into the pallets," Tony said, suddenly animated and out of his chair, "we can just fly them up ourselves, like a hovercraft." He pointed his StarkBoard at Peppers 152-inch plasma screen and it turned on, displaying a rough engineering sketch he had just scribbled on the tablet. "If we put repulsor arrays at the four corners," he continued, gesturing to the image on the screen, "and a power source here," he pointed to a spot in front of the pallet, "then we can just walk along and push them to where we want them to go, no road needed."

"That's a great idea," Bill stated, jumping up to scrutinize the specifications. "If we can come up with a viable prototype, we may even be able to market these to private industry and the military. I hear the NASA is looking into viable technology to move heavy equipment around the surface of the moon for their proposed lunar station."

"Hmmm … on second thought … why bother pushing it when we can just have it drive itself to the drop site?" Tony continued his train of thought. He scribbled a little box onto the front near the power supply and continued, "using artificial intelligence, we can just program the pallets to uplink to the nearest tactical satellite or GPS unit and move itself to a designated drop site on its own. Just open the door of the C5, push a button, and the plane will unload itself and get everything where it needs to go."

"That would come in really handy if we could integrate this technology into the self-erecting shelters as well," Dave Hadley from Shelter Ops also jumped up, scrutinizing the plans. "Those things are heavy. If they could just move themselves where they need to go, I think there would be a commercial market for the upgrade."

Tony and the two men fiddled with the proposed specifications for a while before Pepper decided it was time to restore order. Whenever Tony was around, enormous breakthroughs in technology were possible, but he also tended to derail whatever plans she had already set in motion. Pepper had long ago learned the art of letting Tony run with his ideas for a little while and then reining him in so she could finish doing whatever it was she needed to do.

"Dave," she interrupted, "Tell me how Shelter Operations went?" The two team leaders sat down while Tony continued to fiddle with his screen in the back of the room.

"Three portable self-erecting shelters for a village that size wasn't enough," Dave stated. "It would have been had there not been so many wounded, but with the increased ratio of wounded came a decreased ratio of available floor space. SHIELD is stepping into situations the military won't touch. We should plan for a greater ratio of wounded in the future."

"How many would you say we need next time?" she asked.

"At least five, six total when you include the dedicated shelter for Stark employees," Dave replied. "Seven if the military aren't present to house the Stark security guards."

"Agreed," Pepper acknowledged remembering the makeshift lean-to she had been forced to hastily erect. "MAEVE, please run the budget projections to add three more self-erecting shelters to the operation."

"Also, Miss Potts," Dave continued, "I think we need to give some thought about how we're going to translate information to native teams in other fields of operation. Security did a good job of translation in the Afghan theater, but if we get deployed someplace else, like North Korea, I think we're going to run into problems. I trust _our_ staff to translate everything that is being said," Dave continued, nodding at Jack Martin, "but I'm not so sure I would trust _local _translators to relay accurate, relevant information if it's a language our security guards don't speak."

"I would have to agree with that concern," seconded Jack Martin, head of security.

"So noted," Pepper replied. "Let me think on that one and get back to you." She noticed Tony had pulled his attention away from his flying pallet project and was walking towards her.

"We already have a solution, or at least a partial one," Tony stated, bending down and shamelessly pulling items out of the bottom drawer of Pepper's desk. "Where is it … I know it's here … somewhere … HERE!" he shouted with triumph as he pulled a tiny Stark cell phone/ear piece out of the bottom drawer and plunked it on the desk.

Pepper hastily kicked the box of tampons that he had thrown on the floor out of sight and hissed, "Tony, what ARE you doing?"

"MAEVE," he directed, holding up the earpiece and strutting over to where Dave was seated, "can you hack in and upload yourself to this phone jack? Good. Now ask JARVIS to access the language recognition software I wrote seven months ago and run it through this device …yes … thank you … roger." Dave winced as Tony shoved the unit into his ear and started rattling off a machine-gun barrage of sentences in a variety of languages.

"My god!" Dave exclaimed. "I could understand everything you just said! That's amazing!"

"I haven't figured out how to have everybody speak in tongues, at least not yet," Tony crowed as he strutted around the room and animatedly held everyone's attention, "but if you loan a second unit to your local tribal liaison, you should be able to communicate with each other."

"What's the cost basis on that, Tony?" Pepper asked. The Trust had been granted a generous budget, but they _did _have limits and the blue sky wish list was beginning to get awfully long.

"Oh, I don't know," he replied. "That's your department. But I bet we can modify existing earpiece technology, so it shouldn't be too much."

"There would be a huge commercial market for this technology," drawled Jack Martin, Security director. "Not just the military. If the price was right, the United Nations, diplomatic operations, heck, even tourists would buy this."

"Okay, great," Pepper stated. Time to move things along. She had another meeting to attend in 20 minutes and still hadn't gotten to the security issue. "Jack … tell me about the security situation."

"Well, Ma'am," Jack drawled in his thick southern accent, "it went pretty well for this operation because we still had Iron Man flying patrol and plenty of military personnel, but we had a few gaps. Nothing too serious … it's just that 20 security team members guarding 16 personnel split up into individual teams over two 12-hour shifts _and _providing translation services at the same time _and _babysitting live ordinance removal could have been a problem in a less secure operation. I recommend that we increase security personnel to a 1.5- to-1 ratio so we have at least 20% of our security guards available overnight to safeguard Stark personnel while they sleep."

"Duly noted," Pepper acknowledged. "Anything else?"

"I recommend that, if you are going to attend the field of operation, that you have _two _security guards at your side at all times, not one," Jack stated. "Unless, of course, Mr. Stark is present in his Iron Man guise."

"That's probably excessive…" Pepper started to protest. Tony cut her off.

"Agreed … do it." Tony snapped, his sudden change in posture and intense expression letting her know this was an issue he would not compromise on. "If you're going to inject yourself into the theatre of war, Miss Potts, you WILL listen to your security advisor. That's an order."

Pepper just raised her eyebrows and gave him a look, but said nothing. Tony had handed over the reins of Stark Industries to her over a year ago, but there were some things he would not compromise on. Her safety was one of them. The other Trust employees glanced at each other at the sudden change in dynamics in the Tony/Pepper relationship, but said nothing. Three days in close proximity with the couple in Afghanistan had taught the Trust team that theirs was a relationship of give and take, and that despite appearances to the outside world, there really were _two _equal co-CEO's running Stark Industries. Pepper ran the company most of the time so Tony could play with his ideas, but at the end of the day it was still Tony Stark's name on the side of the building.

After a moment, Pepper cleared her throat and continued, "anything else, Jack?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark asked me to set up a program of basic weapons and martial arts training for all Trust employees. I have a proposal right here," Jack stated, placing a bound report onto Peppers desk.

"Yes, thank you Mr. Martin," Pepper stated, glancing back at Tony who still had that intense don't-argue-with-me expression on his face. "I am in full agreement with Mr. Stark on this. We are not UNICEF or the Red Cross. We are under no obligation to stand back and allow ourselves to be brutalized if the bad guys decide to come back. We are not military and cannot be expected to perform military duties, but knowing how to take care of ourselves if things turn ugly is prudent. Jack … how soon can we start?"

"I have located sparring space adjacent to the employee gym and can start tomorrow" Jack stated. "It will take a little longer to coordinate weapons training as we need to share the firing range with the defensive weapons division and they have the space booked solid for the next several weeks."

"Make it happen," Pepper replied. "Thank you, Jack." She looked down at her watch and saw she had 7 minutes left before the CFO was due to arrive and go over the quarterlies. She'd really hoped to have more time to speak to Tony. "Thank you, everybody, that will be all. We'll meet again next week, same time, same place." Everybody except for Tony got up and began to file out of the room.

"Hey, Pepper," Tony queried softly. "Are you going to get home at a decent hour tonight? I've barely seen you for the past three weeks." He stepped behind her and began to massage the back of her neck.

Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger and whimpered. "Owwww … I've got a meeting in 6 minutes, and then a conference call, and then another meeting with the PG&E people. I'll get home as soon as I can."

She twisted her head to one side, baring the nape of her neck so Tony would have better access to massage it. She moaned with pleasure when instead he bent down and began to kiss from ear to collar. "Mmmmmm …. I'll take as much of that as you can give."

"Rough day?" he asked.

"Not really. Just a very busy one. I go away for a few days and everything grinds to a standstill," she complained. "It's been three weeks and I'm still playing catch-up."

"I want to go out to dinner with you some time, Pepper," Tony murmured in her ear. "And dance. I've got something I've been wanting to talk to you about."

Pepper reached up to tossle his hair and tuck his head into the side of her neck. They both paused there, in the moment, basking in each others' warmth, until Pepper's intercom chimed and Miss Mitchells voice announced that Henry Pryzkowski, the CFO, had arrived. "Aww," she groaned. "Back to the grind."

Tony spun her chair around and bent in to give her a kiss. "Not too late, okay? If I get waylaid down in my workshop, please come down and drag me out. I want to spend some time with you."

"Okay," Pepper murmured. "See you tonight."


	14. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

_October 2011: Malibu_

It was 10:35 p.m. before Pepper finally pulled up to the Stark mansion. She was absolutely exhausted. Too many politicians in the room, she ruminated. Everybody trying to upstage everyone else and nobody listening to what the other was saying. It was like herding cats. Still … Pepper had finally coaxed the conversation in the direction she wanted and gotten the parties to agree to a second power purchase agreement on top of the first one negotiated last year. The Board would be pleased.

Hogan opened the car door for her and bid her goodnight before pulling the car around to the garage. He had missed his boxing session with Natalie because of her, she thought regretfully. The house was nearly dark, although JARVIS turned up the lights and bid her hello as soon as she walked in the front door. "JARVIS," she asked, "where is Mr. Stark?"

"He is down in the new part of the basement," JARVIS replied. "Sub-level three."

Pepper didn't like the new sub-basements very much. They had no windows, and truth be told they creeped her out. The further down you went, the heavier the air felt and the stronger you could feel the surf pounding against the cliffs below. She didn't know how Tony tolerated it, especially given the time he had spent imprisoned in such a space, but he didn't seem to notice. He'd probably built up a tolerance during his captivity.

Most of the sub-basements were still unfinished, but the Avengers were rapidly expanding into the new space and converting it into all kinds of top-secret superhero projects. SHIELD operatives no longer came and went through the garage. Tony had built a special entrance ½ mile from the house so they wouldn't disturb her. The city building inspector would be very surprised if he ever inspected the property to find the Stark mansion had been converted into Superhero Central.

"JARVIS," Pepper said, "could you please tell Mr. Stark I am here. I'm going upstairs to take a shower."

"Yes, Miss Potts," JARVIS replied. A moment later he stated, "Mr. Stark says he'll be up in a few minutes."

Pepper never did make it into the shower. When Tony got upstairs 8 minutes later, he found her sound asleep on top of the bed, fully dressed. He gently removed her Manolo Blahniks, grabbed an extra comforter from the closet, and curled up beside her, gently taking her into his arms so she wouldn't wake up. He thought of all the ways his life had changed since his capture and wondered how he had ever been so blind as to not see, not cherish what was right under his nose the entire time. He had always know he couldn't live without Pepper's organizational skills, but it wasn't until he came back from the grave and caught his first glimpse of her, red-eyed, waiting for him to exit the plane after escaping captivity that he realized he couldn't live without _her._

"Pepper," he whispered to his sleeping beauty, kissing her forehead, "I have something very important I've been trying to ask you. Please don't break my heart."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony was awakened by Pepper thrashing around in her sleep. "Crows!" she kept murmuring. "Crows! Get away! Get away from her! Crows!" He held her and whispered in her ear that everything would be all right until she quieted down and her breathing evened out.

Every night since he had found her in the village square, surrounded by the dead, Pepper had had the same nightmare. She never remembered it in the morning, but he did. He felt guilty, but he also knew the experience had changed her, brought them closer together. Pepper understood why he had to be Iron Man, was more understanding when he disappeared on a mission, and she was taking an interest in his work. On the other hand, by throwing herself into her new Stark Charitable Trust to help victims of the bad guys he went after, she had less time than ever to spend with him.

Sometimes he wished they could go back to being boss and personal assistant, before Iron Man, before Afghanistan, only without the stupid drinking, and partying, and loose women. If only he'd appreciated what had been under his nose all those years! But there was no going back. Captivity hadn't just changed _him_, it had changed _her_ as well. The Pepper Potts he had come back to had been harder, more pragmatic, even a little ruthless.

He had no close confidants on the Board of Directors, but more than one had pulled him aside and complained how Pepper had quite literally blackmailed them into continuing the search for him, how she had single-handedly blocked Obediah Stane from having him declared legally dead and taking over the company by wielding Tony's shares (as he had set up for her to do in case of his absence) and going directly to the shareholders themselves to gain enough proxy's to thwart the Board's vote.

Heck … rumor had it that she had even blackmailed the President of the United States to continue searching, hinting at footage JARVIS had of a drunken little tete a tete one night shortly before being elected with Tony and the Maxim cover models. The Board had learned very quickly that if they gave her trouble, Pepper Potts would grind them under one of her beautiful, shapely, 4" high spiked heels.

But Pepper took damned good care of him, and his company, and the Avengers, and now all the people the bad guys hurt. She was very good at taking care of other people. Lately, however, Tony found himself wanting to take care of _her _for a change. It was a new aspect of his personality, he discovered, finding pleasure in making sure somebody else's needs were met. He kind of liked it.

But … he was Tony Stark. To the outside world, he was still a self-absorbed jackass. Only Pepper saw this side of him. He preferred it that way, although he had an inkling that both his new Avengers friends and now her Stark Trust employees knew otherwise. That wasn't so bad. It was nice to have an extended family, of sorts. He snuggled in to her warmth and drifted back to sleep.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Kiiii-ahhhh!" Natalie shouted as she executed one of her simplest judo gatame moves.

Pepper lay on the floor, blinking at the ceiling, stunned. Natalie had knocked the wind out of her … again. No matter how many times Pepper rushed her, Natalie had her down on the floor and pinned within 3 seconds. Now she knew how Hogan felt, although Hogan was getting better at it. Natalie was a hard one to read, but Pepper could swear Natalie enjoyed her time with Hogan a little more than just a sparring match.

Which was hopeful … since Natalie seemed to be the only person who _didn't _notice that Hogan followed her around like a love-sick puppy.

Pepper hoped the superhero with near-superhuman martial arts skills wasn't too bored being saddled with teaching the likes of her, Pepper Potts, too-tall gawky string-bean, about self-defense. Pepper kept trying to take short-cuts with her training and Natalie kept putting her firmly back into her place. She took Natalie's offered hand and pulled herself back up.

"You're focusing too much on trying to do what I'm doing," Natalie coached her as they practiced some basic blocks and punches. "What you need to be doing is your _own _thing," she said between punches. "You don't need to be flashy … just effective. Let your opponent underestimate you. His arrogance is your advantage. If need be … fake him out. Always watch for an opening. If you get one … take it. Stop trying to be me. You need to find your _own_ style."

"Can we review the basics some more?" Pepper asked, winded. "This really doesn't come naturally to me. I think if we break it down into simple blocks and holds, I'll be able to learn from there."

Natalie pushed the Century BOB full body opponent target into the middle of the sparring area. Someone, probably Tony, had jokingly dressed the grim-faced training mannequin up in a towel wound around the head to look like a Taliban turban.

"Forward leading stance," Natalie said, "I want you to do 30 front kicks, 30 side kicks, and 30 roundhouse kicks, each leg. Right here … hit him in the bread basket!"

"I already mastered that," Pepper complained.

"You never finish mastering the basics," Natalie corrected. "You only master each component so you can combine them into more difficult moves. Now, stop whining and get to it!"

Pepper laughed and did as she was told, kicking the mannequin as hard as she could and losing her balance a few times on the side kicks. She needed to work on those! Despite martial arts being the absolute _last _sport she'd ever thought she'd be learning, Pepper had to admit she was enjoying herself. She wasn't about to turn into a superhero, but feeling capable of taking care of herself had definitely added a bit of a swagger to her walk lately.

Natalie then had her work the same kicks from cat stance, then more basic blocks and hits. 45 minutes later and Pepper was no closer to throwing the catlike Natalie to the floor than when she first started training 2.5 weeks ago, but she had worked up a good sweat and felt good. Pepper Potts … learning martial arts … who would have figured?

They were practicing some kihon (mirror imaging) when Tony came into the room in his favorite ratty boxing attire and started cheering Pepper on. "C'mon Pepper, you can do it! Let's see you take that cocky lady down a peg or two!" Pepper gave him her most baleful look. "My turn," he said, climbing into the rink with them and giving Natalie a high-five.

Natalie, of course, immediately grabbed his hand, bent it back into a break-hold, and then proceeded to flip him onto his back with her feet pinning his neck to the floor in her signature judo move. "I'm an equal opportunity ass-whupper," she stated, laughing.

"I meant my turn with Pepper, Natalie," he laughed from his subordinate position. Natalie released him and gave him a hand up. He instantly sidled up to Pepper and starting nuzzling her very sweaty neck.

"Tony … that's disgusting!" she cried. "Eewwww … I'm all sweaty! Yuk!"

"Ahhh, but mon cheri," he stated in his most nasal French accent, taking her arm and kissing from inside her wrist up to her armpit with his most seductive Pepi la Phew impersonation, "but … [kiss] …I … [kiss] …find… [kiss] … your…[kiss]…scent … [kiss] …irresistible!"

Pepper playfully smacked him on the side of his head and then used the throw Natalie had just taught her to toss him to the floor and sit on his abdomen.

"I'll leave you two alone to finish this little … foreplay," Natalie laughed, grabbing her towel and heading downstairs for the showers. "Pepper, I'll see you Monday."

"Hmmmm … I think I like you on top," Tony purred, running his hands down her backside and grasping her fanny. Little Tony poked demandingly into her crotch through the sweat suit. His eyes turned a dark shade of brown as he smiled up at her. They heard the airlock close as Natalie retreated down to the Avenger quarters deep in the basement. They were alone.

"Awww … what the heck," Pepper stated, pinning his shoulders into a subordinate position before bending down to give him a hungry kiss. "We haven't christened this room yet. JARVIS … please deny access to this area to anybody but us."

They never did finish their sparring lesson. At least not the one that wore gloves.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was a date. Sort of. Pepper hadn't had time to use her suit since leaving Afghanistan, so Tony had finally called her assistant, Miss Mitchells, and ordered her to cancel the rest of Peppers day. He had flown to Stark Industries, walked right into her office still wearing his suit, left the shocked employees speechless when Iron Man requested they leave, and handed Pepper her suitcase armor. "Let's go," he ordered. "I need you to test out some upgrades."

"Tony!" she protested. "What the HELL do you think you're doing? You can't just walk into my office and cancel my day!"

"C'mon Pepper," he replied. "I called Miss Mitchell and she confirmed you just have drudge work left to do this afternoon. That's what you hired _her _for. It's time to let your people do their job and take a little time for yourself." Shouting out the open door he continued, "you can handle these last two staff meetings, can't you, Miss Mitchell?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark," Miss Mitchells stated, smiling. "They are just status reports. I will gather the information and compile a synopsis for Miss Potts to review first thing tomorrow morning."

Pepper opened and shut her mouth like a goldfish in a bowl, but no sound came out. Tony herded her out into the hallway, where dozens of employees gawked at the sight of Iron Man, helmet in hand, herding their CEO down the hallway and up the stairs to the roof like a wayward steer. Finally she blurted out, "Tony … what has gotten INTO you?"

"All work and no play makes Pepper a dull girl," Tony teased. "C'mon … you've been working too hard. If you don't take a break once in a while, you're going to have a nervous breakdown." Pepper looked down at the suitcase in her hands.

"Remember the time," he quietly coaxed, his eyes pleading with her, "when we flew up to the top of the mountain and watched the sunset together? It'll be sunset in 45 minutes. Where would you like to go?"

Pepper hesitated a moment, deciding, before hiking her skirt and stomping on the lever that caused her suit to unfold around her body. Except for the skirt, her normal work attire didn't present any barriers to the suit unfolding, although it would be horribly wrinkled once she was finished. As her helmet snapped shut over her face and MAEVE greeted her, she shouted, "the last one to Castro Crest is a rotten egg!"

Before Tony could even react, Pepper was blasting off the roof and halfway to the Santa Monica mountains. "Now, that's more like it," he laughed, hastily snapping his helmet back onto his suit and taking off in hot pursuit. Although Peppers suit worked well and had some interesting new defensive capabilities, it traded portability for aerodynamics and moved a lot slower than his Mach 6. He quickly caught up, teased her for being so slow, and then pulled just far enough ahead of her that she protested. Slowing down a little so they could fly side-by-side, they flew hand-in-hand to the top of Castro Crest.

"You're crazy, Tony," Pepper laughed, taking off her helmet, "do you know that?"

"And you love me," he taunted in return, flipping up his visor and removing his gauntlets so he could take her hand, "so what does that make you?"

Pepper smiled. "MAEVE, how long until sunset?"

"23 minutes, Miss Potts," MAEVE replied.

"Look, Pepper," Tony called, pointing down the mountain to the coast, "you can see all the way to the Channel Islands!"

"Mmmm, nice," Pepper stated, smiling and sitting down on a grassy knoll with a good view of the setting sun. She slipped off her gauntlets and patted the spot next to her, saying, "pull up some grass and make yourself comfortable."

Tony sat next to her and caught his breath, held captive in her cerulean blue eyes and content smile. He could feel his heart pounding inside his suit. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, but all he could look at was the sunlight reflected off her fiery red mane. The question that had been taking up considerable real estate in his mind lately welled up in his throat. Taking her hand in his and terrified at what her response would be, he stammered, "P- Pepper, I have something important I've been wanting to ask you …"

"Yes, Tony," she turned to him, smiling, then turned serious as she saw an expression that she had only seen once before, the pained expression the day he had cooked her eggs on the plane and begged her not to go home, the day he had tried to tell her he was dying and she was too boneheaded to listen. "Ohmigod … Tony … are you okay?"

"Yes … noooo … I dunno," he stammered, the words he had rehearsed a million times in front of the mirror vanishing as he stared into her eyes and saw a parade of emotions cross her face. It figures that he, Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, and superhero, would lose the ability to speak the moment he was about to ask the most important question in his life. What if she said no? What if she said no and _left _him? Maybe he should wait and ask at a better time?

Her heart racing, Pepper reached out and grabbed his face in her hands. She looked deep into his eyes and said, "Tony, whatever it is, you must tell me. Don't you _dare_ keep things from me!"

"M-m-m marry me," he whispered, his eyes pleading.

"What?" she asked, her expression puzzled. Did she just hear what she thought she just heard?

"Marry me," he said, louder this time. "Pepper, I want you to marry me."

They sat there for a long moment, Pepper's shocked expression indicating this was the last thing she expected to pop out of Tony Stark's mouth. Tony felt light-headed as he held his breath and waited for her answer.

"Yes," she finally whispered, pulling him in for a kiss.


	15. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

_A.D. 1976 – Upper Mongolia_

Chu was breaking in his new regiment on the Chinese-Soviet border when he received word Uncle Mao had died. Having only commanded the Red Army unit for barely five months, he was still working the bugs out of his command and earning the loyalty of his soldiers. Although he had won some over, he had yet to win all of them.

There was much grumbling amongst the troops about hardships created by Aunt Jiang and her "Gang of Four" collaborators ruthless rollout of revolutionary ideas. Chu had done what he could to stamp out these dangerous bourgeois sentiments but, ironically, it was his blood relation to his grandfather which seemed to inspire more loyalty amongst his soldiers, not his close relationship with Chairman Mao.

His grandfather had summoned him shortly before the cancer took him. Chu had spent his whole life hating the old man, hating him for the stigma he had been forced to endure amongst first the Red Scarf youth, then the Party, as he tried to ascend to the position of power Aunt Jiang had groomed him for. Li Na may have been their biological daughter, but the soft-spoken Li had little interest in the communist party, only doing what her parents ordered and no more. Chu, on the other hand, had taken the lessons he had learned from his mentor, Pol Pot, and convinced Aunt Jiang to incorporate more of Pol Pots ruthless tactics into quelling the dissent which was beginning to tear China apart.

Peng Dehuai had been the Revolutions fiercest general, some said even greater than General Lin Biao. The son of common peasants, the squat, burly Peng had inspired his men to win great battles. Breaking with the military's longstanding tradition of installing political appointees into leadership positions, Peng Dehuai had stripped incompetent officers of their rank and installed highly competent officers in their place, usually soldiers of exceedingly common means who had proven themselves time again in battle.

Peng Dehuai had been called the "bulldog of the Revolution," a force of nature the Party would unleash upon any enemy they wished to have completely destroyed. It was only after Peng Dehuai had begun to criticize Chairman Mao for the harm his five-year-plans were inflicting upon the commoners that the Party had turned on him. It was ironic that, in his final meeting with his decorated and disgraced grandfather, Chu realized his grandfather had a lot in common with his hero and mentor, Pol Pot.

"Chu," his grandfather had murmured, close to death, "I forgive you for doing what you thought was necessary. But hear this … Chairman Mao will not be too long in following me into the grave. When he dies, the collaboration he built will fall apart. Without a head, the body will fail. Your aunt has been too brutal with the common people and they hate her for it. Without Mao, she will not be able to protect you. You must abandon your quest for power within the Party and seek it amongst your people. Only then can you achieve the agrarian utopia abandoned by the Party."

His grandfather had been right. Chairman Mao had died several weeks ago and already the bourgeois had become bold, rioting in the streets and demanding the head of his Aunt. He had been surprised when the Party had sided against her and her closest confidants, who they had labeled the "Gang of Four" and blamed for all the woes that riddled China. Li Na had already been arrested and expelled from the Party, although rumor had it she would be allowed to go free so long as she signed an agreement to never appear in public again.

Rumor had it that the Party had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him. Chu had taken a very public stance in support of the Party, so he found it hard to believe they would betray him, but then again, look what they had done to Aung Jiang? If the widow of Chairman Mao himself could be arrested, then his arrest was probably imminent. Chu had pulled a few political strings to get advance warning if they came for him so he could escape.

Chu thought back to how he had betrayed his grandfather at eight years old, the old man's insistence even under torture that he had always had the interests of the revolution at heart, and began to re-think the ideals he had been taught to eschew. His grandfather subscribed to a version of agrarian communism much closer to that of his mentor, Pol Pot, than the Soviet-leaning industrialized communism preferred by Chairman Mao. For the past 10 years, Chairman Mao had often met with industrial capitalists, trying to recreate China into a communist version of the powerhouse industrial West without the political inconveniences encouraged by democracy. It was ironic that his grandfather had been accused of sympathizing with the Soviets and the capitalist west when, in reality, the old man had hated everything those nations stood for.

It was one of his grandfathers' old lieutenants who gave him warning that the Party was at the entrance to the camp with a warrant for his arrest. Taking a jeep he had prepared just for that purpose, Chu slipped out the back and headed for a place no one would follow him, a jagged canyon in the Mongolian plain that no local would visit out of superstitious fear of dragons. The canyon had a mild radioactive signature, but nothing that couldn't be endured for a few months while he lay low.

Chu swallowed a potassium iodide capsule to prevent the low-level radiation from damaging his thymus and hid the jeep in some brush about a mile into the canyon. The canyon reportedly ended in a system of caves, although with the locals too fearful to enter, it was poorly mapped. Wildlife and water were abundant, although it had strange flora and fauna found no place else in China, likely mutations caused by the constant, low-level radiation. Chu grabbed the rucksack full of survival gear he had had the foresight to pack and hiked deeper into the canyon.

The chasm culminated in a deep conical crater nearly two miles deep. Chu looked up at the steep tree-lined walls and wondered what unique geological forces could have caused such an unusual geographical feature to erupt out in the middle of the flat Mongolian plain. He found the cave-like feature mentioned on his map, although he was severely disappointed to discover it was little more than a rocky overhang, not the actual cave he had been hoping for. The overhang would provide little shelter from the elements. Winter was coming. Over the next few weeks, Chu was forced to gather rocks and wood to block off the entrance to the cave and make a crude hut so he wouldn't freeze to death in the harsh Mongolian winter.

As he sat there shivering each night, the modest fire he lit to avoid detection barely adequate to keep him alive, he thought of what his grandfather said and began to hate those amongst his people who had abandoned their ideals in favor of consolidating power. West or East … it didn't matter. In the end, everyone sold out to the almighty yuan (dollar) as surely as Chairman Mao had sold his soul to the capitalists. One only needed to look at cities such as Beijing, crawling with new investments from foreign corporations, to see what had happened. Mongolia, on the other hand, whose border was forever wavering in China's never ending negotiations with Russia, was being seduced into the Marxist vision of industrial slavery.

For the first time in his life, Chu understood that _neither_ version of society, either communism or capitalism, served the will of the common man. Like a holy man who had retreated on a pilgrimage to a cave, Chu spent the better part of the next 6 weeks shivering in his miserable makeshift shelter in the frigid Mongolian winter and rethinking what society _should _look like. As every other ideal he had idealized had failed, Chu reached back further in time to his illustrious ancestor, Genghis Khan. The Great Khan had lost his father at an early age just as Chu had. Genghis had been trained from birth to be a leader, but corrupt forces had conspired to deprive him of his leadership just as had happened to Chu. The forces who Genghis _should _have been ruling attempted time and again first to strip him of his birthright, and then kill him, just as was happening to him right now. Chu had never been a religious man, but he began to pray that the gods would send him a sign of what path it was he needed to take to set China back on the path to utopia.

It was 3 months into his exile in the canyon that he saw the wolf. He had been trying to hunt a mange-infected deer for his supper when he heard the growl. He was used to most of the wildlife exhibiting some type of deformity from countless generations of evolving in the low-level radiation, but this was something else altogether.

Although his conscious mind acknowledged he had often seen such freaks of nature in the travelling circuses his aunt had taken him to as a boy, his subconscious rebelled in terror at the sight of a two-headed wolf, both heads snarling at him as the creature crouched on a rocky outcrop. Although his conscious mind rattled off a list of possible scientific causes for the phenomenon, most likely monozygotic twins that had failed to fully separate due to the radiation, his subconscious mind cried "demon" and backed away from the creature, too addled to raise the rifle he had in his hand and shoot the darned thing or watch where he was going.

Chu cried out in surprise as the ground gave out beneath his feet and he fell into the darkness.

He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious, but as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light shining through the hole he had just fallen through, he realized he was in some kind of underground cavern. As he pulled himself to his feet, it slowly dawned on him that this was no cavern. No cave formed a natural square. He was in the bowels of some ancient vessel, he realized. The hole he had fallen through was too high up to crawl back out. He had to find another way. He dug through his rucksack and found his flashlight.

Chu's mind became calm as he realized that the gods had, indeed, sent him the sign for which he had prayed. Like his illustrious ancestor, it had been a wolf which had driven the exiled Genghis into a cave where he had found the burial chamber and weapons of a great warrior to use against them. Not only had the god's sent a wolf, but it was a wolf unlike any other. Chu thanked the gods and vowed to accept the mission they had chosen him to fulfill.

As he wandered through corridor after corridor, Chu realized the ancient ship must have been enormous. He was horrified to discover the skeletal remains of, not humans, but some type of enormous lizard-like creature. Ahh, he thought to himself, there had been truth to the legends. The locals had whispered tales of dragons crawling out of the valley and heading west to defeat an ancient evil. Chu thought of the space race currently being waged between the Soviets and the Americans and realized what he had found. He, Chu Peng, was the first human to confirm that dragons had once visited the earth and, like them, he was being given this great treasure to defeat the evil, the evil found in the West. Although Chu was not educated to be an engineer, his natural aptitude and training included enough technical knowledge to recognize what some of the systems he was looking at might do.

It was several days into his entrapment that he found the ship's bridge. His food had been depleted two days ago, although water seeped through the ground into the ancient spaceship at various cracks in the hull so he had water. He recognized what appeared to be command consoles and was surprised that, when he touched some of the buttons, the console came to life. He had no idea what the alien language was scrolling across the screen, but he realized there was valuable technology he could salvage from this spaceship, technology he could use to regain the position of power he had recently lost. Chu ignored his hunger and began to tinker.

Chu kicked the remains of several alien corpses out of the way as he tinkered with the ancient equipment. The ship had been severely damaged and would need extensive repairs. Furthermore, the ship was nearly out of power. It wasn't until many hours later that Chu finally took a closer look at one of the corpses he had ignored, a dragon impaled through the chest sitting on what was probably the Captains chair, and noticed the creature was wearing gauntlets on each claw-laden hand. Probably the leader, he mused, killed when the ship crashed. Chu looked down at the skeleton, then unceremoniously snapped the creatures hands off so he could retrieve the gauntlets.

Each gauntlet consisted of a wrist-piece, rings for each finger and thumb, and some kind of reddish jewel-type thing in the middle of the palm. Probably some sort of weapon, he mused. Chu pointed the gauntlet at one of the walls obstructing his escape and pictured it disappearing. He was surprised when a reddish light blasted out of the jewel in the center of the palm and did just that.

For the next several months, Chu returned to the ship, ferreting out as many of its secrets as he possibly could. He gradually mastered use of the alien gauntlets, which he called the ten rings, and realized he could use them as a weapon to incapacitate, kill, or even disintegrate objects. He also learned the hard way that the gauntlets, so long as worn, would protect him from objects such as rocks falling from the roof onto his head. He even discovered that by pointing the gauntlets down towards the ground and stiffening his arms, he could use a low-level pulse to hover several feet in the air.

Chu thought back to the influences in his life, Aunt Jiang's theatrics, Pol Pot's leadership style, and his grandfather's vision for a utopian future free of western contamination. Mao had sold out to the ideals of capitalism. Chu Peng would not! Had not the God's themselves just chosen him to be the instrument that delivered Asia from the evils of western capitalism? He had been granted a magnificent gift, no, not just any gift, but a _weapon_. Chu understood the God's were telling him that he was to unite and win back his great-great-etc. grandfather Genghis Khan's empire not by pacifistic ideals, but by the sword! He would resurrect the great ship and use it to conquer the world! He was a god amongst men! But while he waited, he had to be careful. Until he repaired the ship and found a way to replenish its depleted core, Chu had to move amongst the world of mortals. A plan began to form in his mind.

It was spring when the strange robe-clad stranger walked into the remote village and demanded to be taken to the village elders. He demanded that each villager pay him tribute and, in return, he would guarantee protection from rogue elements of the Red Army that were pillaging the countryside now that the death of Chairman Mao had left the country in chaos. When a smart-mouthed villager challenged his authority, the stranger lifted his hands and used great magic to blast the villager right through the wall of the hut, leaving his body charred and burned. The villagers instantly complied.

The stranger commanded that the tribe send out runners to all the tribes in the area and request a kurultai, a great meeting of all the tribes, just as his ancestor Genghis Khan had done to unite them in 1206. When the elders asked what leader they should tell the tribal leaders requested their attendance, he thought for a moment and replied, "tell them they may call me the Mandarin."


	16. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

_November, 2011: Malibu_

"Don't chew your hair, dear," Tony admonished as he watched Pepper pace back and forth like a caged jaguar.

Miss Mitchells poked her head in the office door announced, "90 seconds, Sir."

"Tony, I don't want to do this…" Pepper said, her voice quivering.

"It'll be fine," he stated, gently untwirling her finger from her hair and tucking the wayward lock back up into her French twist. "We've got to tell them sometime."

"Can't we just … elope?" Pepper pleaded. "You know how I hate 3-ring circuses."

"Hey … I thought the girl was supposed to be the one who wanted the big to-do," Tony teased, throwing his arms wide like an emcee. "This is your chance to have a big dream wedding. We'll invite all the heads of state, the President, the Queen of England, the who's who of the world. Just think … you can hit them all up to make big donations to your new foundation in lieu of wedding presents. Think how many people _that _would help."

"I – I know," she hesitated, "but … it's nobody's business…"

"Pepper … what do you intend to do …" he teased, "just change your last name to Stark and hope nobody notices the new CEO of Stark Industries suddenly has the same last name as the old one? Besides … the press already caught wind Vera Wang has made several trips up to the mansion. If we don't tell them _something…._"

"15 seconds, Ma'am," Miss Mitchells announced again, opening the door wide and gesturing for them to come out.

Pepper looked as though she were about to bolt. Tony firmly reached over and took her hand, placing his other hand on the small of her back and propelling his reluctant bride-to-be towards the press conference.

"Just think of it as payback for all the charity balls you've forced me to attend over the years," he laughed, guiding her towards the podium where dozens of reporters had assembled . Boy, he thought to himself, are _they _in for a surprise. He could hardly believe it himself. First he had won Peppers heart, and now she had agreed to marry him. He had to be the luckiest man in the world! He waited for the crowd to quiet down before he began.

"We at Stark Industries have great news to announce," he beamed, pausing for emphasis while the reporters waited at the edges of their seat. Tony was, first and foremost, a showman and he deeply enjoyed hamming it up for the cameras.

Pepper, on the other hand, had turned a deep hue of pink and her eyes were darting back and forth looking for the quickest escape route. Although she had no fear of standing in front of the press and communicating whatever message needed to be said, Pepper loathed attention.

"Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark, Mr. Stark," various reporters interrupted as he waited. They didn't have a clue what this press conference was about, but whenever Tony Stark put in a personal appearance, it was usually the scoop of the century.

Tony put up one hand in the universal "wait" sign until complete silence permeated the room, his expressive dark eyes gleaming like an excited kid about to blurt out he'd just seen his first circus elephant. Pepper, on the other hand, looked like she was about to faint. He turned to Pepper, looked deep into her eyes, and smiled before taking her hand and turning back to the reporters together.

"I am pleased to announce a new Stark Industries merger," he announced and paused, milking the moment (and Pepper's angst) one minute longer. "Miss Potts has agreed to become my wife."

The room exploded with flash bulbs and questions as the reporters stood and rushed the podium. Pepper turned chalk white, but Tony protectively put his arm around her and held up his hand to restore order. Stark security guards stepped in to prevent the more aggressive reporters from shoving microphones into their faces.

"As soon as we quiet down," Tony firmly announced, "we'll answer a few questions."

"So what you're telling us is that, first you just hand over control of your company to your secretary," a mosquito-like feminine voice droned, "a woman with no qualifications to be CEO, and now you're going to marry her?"

"Christine Everheart," Tony announced, the angry glint in his eyes belying the fake smile he gave the crowd. "Why am I not surprised?"

"What assurances can you give the shareholders that this little … alliance … of yours isn't going to run Stark Industries into the ground?" Miss Everheart snarled.

Pepper looked like she was about to spring over the podium and claw out Christine Everhearts eyes, but restrained herself with her trademark calm. She composed her expression into her Miss Potts CEO mask and took control of the situation.

"The shareholders have the _same _assurances they've had since I first took the reins of Stark Industries 1.5 years ago," Pepper answered. "Profits are up, stock prices are through the roof, our credit rating is AAA, the company has numerous exciting new technologies being developed for market, and Mr. Stark and I have, and always will, work very well together."

At that point Tony, who had remained quiet in order to let Pepper have her say, threw his palms up to his sides in his most dramatic "oh well" gesture and joked, "C'mon people! It's not like this is a surprise. You guys have been speculating about our relationship for years! We're just making it official."

John Ryder, a reporter Tony trusted from the Los Angeles Times, raised his hand. "John," Tony pointed and called upon him.

"Miss Potts," John asked, redirecting the questioning into a more appropriate course, "do you have a ring?"

"Y-yes," Pepper blushed, holding out her hand to show, instead of a diamond, a tiny 5-carot diamond-sized microtized arc reactor glowing silver-blue from a starkium setting.

"Is that a replica of an arc reactor?" one reporter asked.

"Who was your jeweler?" another asked.

"What is it made of?" a third asked.

"When's the wedding date?" a fourth asked.

"Is it true that Vera Wang is making your dress?" a fifth asked.

"It's a –_working- _starkium-powered microtized arc reactor, just like the one powering my suit, only smaller," Tony announced, turning from the reporters, taking her hand, and looking deep into Peppers blue eyes. "What symbol could be more fitting for the woman who won Iron Man's heart?" he continued, tapping his chest, "than a piece of the technology that makes it all possible."

Although the fact Tony's arc reactor was physically embedded in his chest and kept him alive was a closely guarded secret, the world was well aware that arc reactor technology was what made the Iron Man suit possible and that it glowed from the heart-area of his suit. Cameras flashed before one of the reporters asked, "how was it made?"

Tony turned to the reporter and said, "I made it with my own two hands, of course. Nothing else would be good enough for the woman I love."

The rest of the press conference went predictably, with reporters asking the usual questions about what date had been set, where the wedding would be held, would she wear white, and so on. After a suitable period of time, Tony announced they were out of time, took Pepper's hand, put his other arm around her shoulder, and protectively herded her back to her office.

"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked, leaning in to give her a kiss as soon as the door closed behind them.

"Tony, if you ever make me do something like that again, I swear to god I'll kill you," Pepper half-heartedly pushed him away and glared at him.

Tony just waggled his eyebrows and laughed at her. "You're supposed to enjoy the attention."

"I _didn't _enjoy that bitch, Christine Everheart, being allowed into the press conference!" she grumbled.

"It's a free country, Pepper," he said, his expression sobering somewhat, "First Amendment and all that, yadayadayada. We can't just answer to the ones we like and not the critics, no matter how much we don't like hearing it."

"Yeah, I know," she said, perking up. "But I _did _put her back into her conniving little rat hole, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," he said, laughing. "Not only did it come off as an unwarranted attack and you come up smelling like roses, but you made it sound like the most sensible thing in the world from a business standpoint. Sometimes, Miss Potts, you are frighteningly efficient!"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Half a world away, a cloaked figure turned towards the television droning in the background and ordered his minions to turn up the volume. A red-haired woman held out a hand wearing a tiny arc reactor, an arc reactor made of the material he desperately needed to power the alien spacecraft. Without a reliable power source, the technology was useless. At the woman's side stood his nemesis, capitalist Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. His first attempt at acquiring the technology directly from the source failed thanks to that mindless green lug, the Hulk. The lower the energy-signature of the threat, the slower the gauntlets built-in shields were to react. Nothing was more primitive than a pair of gigantic green fists pounding his face into the concrete, so his shields had failed to activate at all. The cloaked figure hissed orders and set his plan in motion.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Stark," Nick Fury barked over the cell phone, "suit up. We've got a mission! Darfur."

Tony groaned. He'd finally dragged Pepper out to a restaurant, someplace where they could dance afterwards, and he was in no hurry to go. "When do I have to leave," he grumbled, his I'm-none-too-pleased tone clearly shooting daggers across the microwaves to Fury's ears.

"We leave in 5 hours," Fury barked. "Drop whatever it is that you're doing and drag your sorry ass back to the mansion. We've got special instructions. Is Pepper with you?"

"Yes, just a minute," he grumbled, handing the phone to Pepper. "It's for you…"

Pepper took the phone and nodded, twirling her hair thoughtfully as she listened to whatever it was Fury was telling her on the other end of the line. "I'll get the team together and be ready to depart in 12 hours," she stated. She looked at Tony as she hung up and simply stated, "it's party time."

Tony reached across the table to take her hand and apologized, "I'm so sorry, Pepper. I really wanted tonight to be special."

"Shall I have them wrap your filet mignon to go?" she pragmatically asked.

"Pepper," he asked. "Are you okay with this?"

"Sure, no problem," Pepper weakly smiled. "It comes with the territory." Although she was putting on a brave face, it was obvious she was disappointed. "Anyways," she continued, "I'll be seeing you in 24 hours. We're deploying too. I'll be right behind you."

Tony frowned. He didn't like the idea of Pepper injecting herself into a hot spot. "Don't you have a Board meeting tomorrow morning?"

"It's a routine status meeting. I'll videoconference in from the plane and send Miss Mitchell to handle anything that needs to be done in person," Pepper replied. "After all," she playfully continued, "I _did _learn from the best about how to avoid going to these meetings."

The waiter came over to the table to refill their water glasses and asked if they needed anything. "Yes," Pepper replied, "Mr. Stark needs to leave. Could you please ask the cook to wrap both meals to go and we'll take them with us?" The waiter nodded and left.

"You're leaving with me?" Tony asked.

"Of course. It's no fun eating alone," Pepper replied. "Besides, I've got work of my own to do to get the team ready to go by 08:00 tomorrow morning."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The sub-basements of the mansion were an anthill of activity. Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) had already arrived and was warming up his shield on the front lawn by giving it a few test-tosses across the yard. "Hey, saw the press conference," Steve called. "It's about time, you two. Congratulations."

"Thanks," they both waved, hurrying into the mansion and down into the Stark cave.

"JARVIS," he called out, "get my suit ready to go. We leave in 4.5 hours."

"Yes, Mr. Stark," JARVIS replied. "MAEVE would like to know if Miss Potts will be needing her suit as well?"

"Yes, JARVIS, although not until after Mr. Stark leaves," Pepper replied. "Please ask MAEVE to run diagnostics as soon as you have finished Mr. Starks' suit."

"Yes, Miss Potts," both AI's replied through the speaker at the same time before JARVIS interrupted, "I've GOT it, MAEVE! This is _my _voice system!"

"She was speaking to _me_," MAEVE pouted (if it was possible for an AI to pout). "Besides, Mr. Stark programmed us to share."

"He didn't program you to be so … annoying!" JARVIS retorted.

"Kids, kids, kids!" Tony shouted. "Play nicely together. You _both _get to talk to us, although to keep the peace JARVIS will have primary control of systems in the mansion while MAEVE has free run of the Stark Industries server." Turning to Pepper, he playfully whispered, "just like real life … the little woman brings home the bacon while the man gets to play in his workshop."

"I think we're going to have to upload conflict resolution skills programming so they get along," Pepper sighed. "It won't do to have them bickering like this all the time."

"Agreed," he laughed. "Why don't you go upstairs to activate your team while I get ready down here?"

Exactly five hours after they had gotten the call, Pepper watched as the full Avengers contingent blasted out of the mansion and headed to Darfur, Africa. A Janjaweed warlord, Ali Kushayb, had invaded several peaceful ethnic African farm villages using both old Stark and Hammer weapons, including, reportedly, nerve agents. The State Department wouldn't touch the mission as Darfur's government refused to acknowledge the ethnic cleansing and SHIELD officially didn't exist, but as private citizens, superheroes could often get away with stepping in and dealing with situations that governments wouldn't touch.

With a net worth dwarfing all but the top eight world economies, Stark Industries was a major non-state player on the world stage. Although they didn't like it, the powers-that-be knew better than to grumble too loudly whenever Tony Stark took action. It was a good thing Tony had America's best interests at heart and not just the selfish interests of either the shareholders or the government, Pepper mused. As a UN-sanctioned nonprofit relief organization, Pepper would be allowed to step in right behind them and help the farmers recover. Her calls made, Pepper decided to go upstairs for a few hours sleep before briefing her team at 07:00 hours tomorrow morning.


	17. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

_November, 2011: Darfur_

Agent Coulson of SHIELD briefed the SCT team before they boarded the planes. Since the Stark corporate jet was available, Trust team leaders and select volunteers would accompany Pepper while the remaining regular team members, security staff, and equipment would be transported on a non-military C5. Although the Trust was not a government-sanctioned military operation, the US government frequently moved disaster relief equipment on transports specially leased to relief organizations. The Stark corporate jet was generously sized, but its layout was for luxury, not large groups of people or equipment. Only so many people would fit.

While Pepper made her videoconference to the Board of Directors, her medical director, Janice Farraday, conversed with Agent Coulson and finalized the logistics. Miss Farraday had been a good choice, Pepper thought, as the Board meeting droned on. Janice hit it off with the soft-spoken Agent Coulson. The Board wasn't upset as, via facsimile, they were able to exchange any paperwork Pepper needed to sign. The DOD guys she had been scheduled to meet with tomorrow were thrilled the Avengers were cleaning up a mess they had long chomped at the bit to deal with and were quite willing to give her time to go in and hold the hands of the locals. Everything else had been left in the capable hands of her personal assistant, Miss Mitchell.

As the new security director, Jack Martin would not be available to personally safeguard her as he was now responsible for security for the entire mission, but his second-in-command, Ron Hayward (from Afghanistan), would be taking his place along with a rotating second security guard. Tony had been immovable in his insistence that she have two guards on her at all times, so she had caved.

According to updates Agent Coulson continuously received from SHIELD, eradicating the Janjaweed warlord and his thugs had been more difficult than first estimated due to some surprise stinger missiles and, of all things, a Stark Jericho missile which had gone rogue some time ago. Pepper worried about Tony's safety, but she also knew he would be pleased to have one less of his old weapons floating around the world killing innocent people.

Darfur was a sad place in an even sadder part of the world. While the world turned its back on the African people, one imperial interest after another ran roughshod through the continent, displacing popular elected officials with warlords sympathetic to corporate interests. First the governments of the West, then multinational corporations, and now China were taking turns pillaging Africa's natural resources with little or no return to the people who lived there.

Tony had been ashamed when he disclosed to her that Stark Industries used to sell billions of dollars worth of weapons each year to African dictatorships sympathetic to western interests (in other words, US corporations) that the US government wished to foster. He was quite anxious to go in and personally clean up some of the harm he had created back in his bad old Merchant of Death days. While the media showed native Africans walking around with photographs of Iron Man begging him to come help, it was often Tony's old weapons pointed at them which they needed saving from.

In Darfur, semi-nomadic ethnic Arabs were sweeping out of the resource-depleted deserts of the north into the southern farmland of the ethnic African Dinka tribe. Although international aid agencies often portrayed it as an Arab-Christian conflict, or Arab-Black conflict, or nomad-farmer conflict, most of the troubles stemmed from a naked land grab by semi-nomadic herders for fertile farmland in the south.

While the UN and western nations dickered about whether the government-sponsored proxy war against the Dinkas was genocide or a civil war, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Africans died, not from war injuries, but from starvation and disease after being displaced from their farms. Ironically, the northerners, who were largely descended from Bedouin nomads, despised the very concept of working the land and their herds usually depleted it, converting it to sterile desert, within a few years of seizing it from its rightful owners.

As the two planes taxied onto the runway of Nyala airport, Agent Coulson updated the team on the Avengers' progress. They had to temporarily re-route from the remote airstrip that had been their destination and would need to make one more hop. Ali Kushayb and a group of Janjaweed militia were holed up in a church with a significant number of human shields, many of them school children. Ali Kushayb reportedly had obtained black market Sarin gas. Although both Iron Mans' and War Machines' suits were capable of filtering out the toxin, the human shields had no such protection. The Avengers were reluctant to simply storm the building and risk having the Janjaweed douse their human shields with the deadly nerve agent.

As the hours ticked by, the plane turned into a furnace under the searing African sun. Team members exited the planes and took shelter underneath the wings, but with no wind there wasn't much relief. Heat waves visibly radiated off the runway, giving the illusion of small lake-like oasis where none existed. Pepper updated team members and tweaked their plans several times. Janice Farraday ordered water be passed around so the team wouldn't become dehydrated. Although Agent Coulson was in constant contact with SHIELD, Pepper hadn't heard directly from Tony. She impatiently paced back and forth under the wing of the plane. God! She hated the waiting. This was almost as bad as waiting back at the mansion!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Rhodey (aka War Machine) crept up to where Iron Man lay prone on a pile of debris, scanning the compound for potential weakness. "I'm reading 17 heat signatures inside the building carrying what appear to be weapons, 6 adults without weapons, and 27 children," Rhodey apprised.

"I got another 4 over here," Tony added, "plus one with what appears to be a stinger missile."

"Have you located the nerve agents?" Rhodey asked.

"Nah … too small … my instruments can't pick up a glass vial," Tony replied. "The canister it's carried in won't look any different to my instruments than a canteen. It's going to be impossible to know who has the canister until we go in and see who pulls it out."

"At least Thor took out that Jericho missile," Rhodey observed. "Or are you still pissy that you weren't the one to blow that up?"

"Hey … I don't get pissy!" Tony retorted. "I just really enjoy blowing those things up. It's very cathartic for me. How's Hulk doing?"

"He'll live. They hit him pretty bad. Good thing he heals so quickly," Rhodey answered. "Maybe next time he'll take up your offer to make him some armor."

"Not likely," Tony replied. "Bruce Banner will agree, but the minute he steps into his not-so-Jolly-Green-Giant alter-ego, all logic goes out the window. I tried that already. The best I was able to do was slip some virbanium into his favorite Hulk-pants when he wasn't looking."

"And I thought _you _were bad, parading around like a half-naked peacock all the time in your pre-Iron Man days," Rhodey joked. "I swear … the Hulk is acting out Bruce's repressed sexual fantasy to parade around naked in front of the girls."

"Just don't let him overhear you say that," Tony replied. "I don't feel like repairing your armor after his fists beat your sorry ass into the floor. You saw what he did to that Janjaweed …"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Natasha Romanov, aka Natalie, aka Black Widow, slipped the brown contact lenses over her blue iris's as the instant tanning solution darkened her skin. She couldn't do much about her pronounced Slavic bone structure, but when dealing with conservative Muslim terrorists, that wasn't a problem.

Natalie quickly touched up her auburn eyebrows with dark brown waterproof mascara before slipping the bulletproof virbanium-silk kimaar (under-veil) over her head, hiding her long auburn hair and protecting all but her face from weapons fire. She then covered herself from head to toe with a black virbanium-reinforced jiljab (full body veil). The new virbanium-reinforced bulletproof fabric Tony had fabricated was turning out to be quite versatile, Natalie mused. Nodding in satisfaction at her transformation, she fastened the bullet-proof veil across the bridge of her nose, leaving only her eyes exposed and disguising the telltale Slavic features. It was time to use the Janjaweed's own misogynist ideals against them.

"You ready?" she turned to Steve, aka Captain America.

Steve nodded and mumbled something into the comms unit on his red-white-and-blue uniform. "The team is in position and awaiting your signal," he stated. "You find that Sarin gas canister, we'll take care of the rest."

It was reported that the Janjaweed's Muslim wives sometimes stood by and sang praises to Allah while their husbands raped and defiled the native African women, who the Bedouin descendents saw as little more than slaves. In a culture where a powerful husband was expected to have as many as a dozen wives and countless concubines, it was only natural that rape would be viewed as natural for a small fringe group of extremists. If it could happen in the United States with Charles Manson and his 18 "brides," then it could happen here, Natalie mused.

Natalie picked up the water-bucket and basket of flat bread and headed for the compound, singing praises to Allah in her fluent Arabic.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Thor stared intently at the rough blueprints of the building as Nick Fury rattled off instructions to the backup team of SHIELD agents who would move in as soon as the Avengers cleared the building. Although Thor could use his hammer to teleport at will, he needed to see where he was going lest he materialize inside a wall. When traversing great distances to an unfamiliar site, he simply got around that problem by materializing several thousand feet in the air and then re-teleporting to an area he had just made visual contact with, but teleporting into an unfamiliar building was always problematic.

In a land without building codes or blueprints, the best SHIELD had been able to provide was a rough sketch from the memory of the parish priest. With so many hostages crammed into the tiny sanctuary, rematerializing on the floor was out of the question. Thank goodness, like most Christian churches, this one had a modest cathedral ceiling. He just hoped the priests' estimates about the height of the ceiling and location of the support beams was accurate or he'd be one hurting puppy.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"I am here to bring sustenance for my husband, Allah be Praised," Natalie murmured demurely in Arabic to the Janjaweed guard, her eyes downcast in the appropriate demeanor for a chaste Muslim woman.

"Let me see your face, woman!" the Janjaweed guard sneered, reaching towards her veil.

"If you defile me, you will answer to Ali Kushayb!" Natalie hissed, still keeping her eyes downcast but her posture warning the guard that this was a woman who was used to being obeyed. The guard pulled back his hand and let her pass.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Captain America crouched just out of sight, shield in hand, ready to take out the guard at a moments' notice. He breathed a sigh of relief as the guard let Natalie pass. He could hear, and even understand, what was said thanks to the new Starktech translator feeding the conversation into one ear. It had been six years since Fury had assigned the former Russian agent to be his partner and he wasn't about to let anything happen to her. As she entered the church and slipped out of sight, he waited for Natalie to give the signal.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Ali Kushayb watched as the hijab-attired woman glided up to his soldiers and demurely announced she had been sent to give them food and water. As leader of this group, it was proper that he have the first drink, and the woman held back, cup offered in front of her, her eyes properly downcast, until he stepped forward and took the cup from her hand.

"What is your name, woman?" Kushayb asked, dipping the cup into the bucket she held before her.

"I am called Nahlah," she replied, her voice quavering as she reached into her basket and proferred a loaf of flat bread. "I am the third wife of Ahmed Massoud," she continued, naming a Janjaweed soldier the Avengers had recently captured and interrogated.

"Nahlah … water from the bringer of water," Kushayb replied, grunting with satisfaction at his joke about the meaning of her name. "Tell me, I have not seen Ahmed in several hours. How does he fare?"

"Not well, my kaaed (leader). He has been gravely wounded, may the Prophet curse the infidels," the woman replied, tears in her eyes as she briefly made eye contact and then cast her eyes back down. "My sister-wives tend his wounds, but his thoughts are only of you."

"Rasul Allah Salallahu 'Alaihi Wasallam," Kushayb murmured in comfort (by the Prophet Mohammed, may peace be upon him). Turning to the Janjaweed soldiers, he announced, "Come, Allah has provided sustenance. Eat." The soldiers stepped forward and politely took the bread and cup from the teary-eyed woman until her basket and bucket were emptied. Kushayb placed the stainless steel canister he had been carrying ever since they retreated into the church within easy reach on a pew next to him.

It took approximately 2.5 minutes before Kushayb realized the wooziness he was feeling was not simply satiation from eating too much bread. Looking at the woman, he saw the modest expression in her eyes had been replaced by a murderous glare. He reached for the canister, hissing "YOU!" It was the last word he ever uttered as the demoness crushed his windpipe with a single blow of her dainty hand, grabbed the canister, cast her eyes towards the ceiling, and ululated the Muslim zaghareet (war cry) summonsing the infidels to finish them off.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"That's the signal!" Captain America shouted as he heard Natalie vocalize the tongue-waggling Muslim war cry. He drew back the arm which had been gripping the shield in a ready position and threw, taking out the guard at the gate as he rushed the others."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

From the other side of the compound, Iron Man blasted the four guards he had spotted earlier while War Machine covered him with a barrage of machine gun fire. They closed in on the fifth Janjaweed soldier with the stinger missile. The Janjaweed fired, but missed (barely) as a concrete wall exploded behind them.

"Ouch!" Tony yelped as the impact of flying concrete and shrapnel from the stinger missile dented his armor and crushed into his back.

"You okay, man?" Rhodey asked.

"Pepper's gonna kill me," he grunted in pain as he realized he probably had another broken rib. "Let's take down this asshole." Working together, they did just that.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Meanwhile, Thor teleported into the church, narrowly missing rematerializing inside a statue of Mary, and landed on the floor just in time to see Natalie cast off her hijab and take out three woozy Janjaweed thugs like a crazed black panther taking down a herd of gazelles.

The Dinka hostages screamed at the sight of an enormous Viking materializing in a bolt of lightning, apparently out of the arms of the Virgin Mary herself, then take out four Janjaweed soldiers with a single blow of his mighty hammer before the Janjaweed could even lift their rifles to fire.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Captain America burst through the front door and used his shield to deflect machine gun fire from two Janjaweed lurking in the vestibule. He took one out with the edge of his shield, kicking the other to the ground and stomping on his wrist, breaking it, to prevent him from lifting the gun and firing. "Move," he hissed, "and you're a dead man."

The Janjaweed removed his hand from the gun and surrendered.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Iron Man crashed through one stained glass window, while War Machine flew through another. They were in the inner sanctuary of the church, they realized. While Rhodey wrestled a Janjaweed to the ground and disarmed him, Tony knocked two others right out the window using the enhanced robotic strength provided by his suit.

"What are you doing, dancing with them or disarming them?" Tony teased, wincing at the sharp pain in his side. Yup. Definitely a broken rib.

"Look out!" Rhodey shouted as a two more Janjaweed rushed at them from the nave door. Tony knocked one assailant right back out the door and into the modest chancel (choir box) as the other took aim and fired at Rhodey. Rhodey laughed as the bullets deflected off his armor, picked up an enormous brass candelabra, and swung it at the gunman like a baseball bat. "It's a home run!" he shouted as the Janjaweed went flying.

Iron Man and War Machine burst into the nave where the hostages crouched, screaming, just in time to see Black Widow deliver a double knife hand strike to the temples of the last Janjaweed soldier as he fell to the floor. Captain America simultaneously burst through the vestibule door, hauling several bound Janjaweed soldiers behind him. Thor playfully spun his hammer like a gunslinger, blew on top as though blowing smoke out of a barrel, and said "piece of cake."

"SHIELD, we are ready for mop up," Captain America called into his comms unit. They spent the next several minutes reassuring the hostages they were safe until the mop up unit moved in.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony was waiting at the tiny dirt airstrip when the planes arrived. It had only taken Pepper 20 minutes to get her team into the air and make the hop from Nyala to the staging area, but it seemed like an eternity. He watched as she descended the stairs and rushed into his arms.

"Tony, are you all right?" she cried, hugging him. Ouch! He could feel that right through his armor.

"I am now," he joked as he suppressed a wince of pain. Let Pepper be angry at him later, once he had removed the suit and couldn't hide the enormous bruise that had to be darkening his side and back even now. Right now, life was good.

"You're bleeding," she said, gently touching his cheek where several dings oozed blood down the side of his face. His hair was matted where blood had seeped out of his scalp and begun to harden into a bloody scab.

"Only superficial cuts," he reassured her. "It looks scarier than it is."

Behind them, he heard Janice Farraday, the Medical Director, clap her hands and shout, "Let's rock and roll, people!" Tony nodded to Janice and smiled. Let Janice handle the logistics of unloading the plane. Right now, he just wanted to spend some quality time with Pepper.

"I've got to, um, get the plane unloaded," Pepper hesitated. "Will I see you later?"

"Of course," he replied. "I'm not leaving until you do."

"Good," she called, turning as one of the team summonsed her back to the task at hand. "Find me!"

Tony watched with satisfaction as Bill Wilson from Intellicrops ascended the ramp of the C5, pushed a few buttons on the pallets of supplies, shouting "CLEAR!" as the pallets began to unload and position themselves into a neat line on the runway. A few minutes later, Dave Hadley did the same with the portable self-erecting shelters. SHIELD Agent Coulson obtained the exact GPS coordinates where each pallet was supposed to go as Bill and Dave punched the longitude and latitude into each individual unit.

At the other end, a SHIELD agent would stand waiting for the supplies to arrive, ensuring civilians didn't get in the way or become frightened when a pallet full of supplies or entire shelter arrived and started unfolding itself. He noted how long it took to manually punch the coordinates into each unit and made a mental note to automate the process so coordinates could be uploaded directly in the future.

It was good to have Pepper working onsite, he mused. He instructed JARVIS to help him compensate for the damaged flight stabilizers on his suit and blasted into the air to patrol the area until he was certain Pepper and her team would be absolutely safe.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Although the Janjaweed had killed 27 civilians, non-fatal injuries and damage to personal property was surprisingly light for a mission of this scale. The Dinka had learned long ago to retreat whenever the semi-nomadic Janjaweed militias approached and return after their herds had grazed the fields down to stubble and left. It was usually the starvation and disease that happened after their crops were destroyed that killed the peaceful Dinka, not the conflict itself.

Peppers biggest problem today had been helping SHIELD reunite the traumatized school children held hostage in the church with their frantic parents. Food, on the other hand, was going to be a big problem. Not an especially fertile land to begin with, at least not by Western standards, the Janjaweed had stolen their food and deliberately destroyed the aquaducts that supplied water to the village fields from far-off rivers. A mere 72 hours after invasion (24 after Avenger intervention), the millet crops were wilting under the hot African sun and, if not watered by tomorrow, would likely be lost.

Since the Trust's primary mission was encouraging self-sufficiency and rebuilding, not simply herding the victims into refugee camps, the team had spent a substantial portion of the day coming up with solutions to salvage the crops. If they could help the Dinka farmers stay on their land, they were less likely to become part of the countless thousands who died of starvation and disease waiting for sporadic international aid to appear from the other NGO's (non-governmental organizations).

Since many of the tall, graceful Dinka spoke English, it was easy for team members to gather information and brainstorm with the locals. Peppers mind was whirring with a variety of options to get water from the distant river to the fields when Tony found her.

"Hey," she asked, "do you think we could do a flyover together of the aqua duct tomorrow morning so I can figure out ways to fix the damage?"

"Sure," he replied without enthusiasm. Pepper frowned. That wasn't like Tony.

"Tony, are you okay?"

"I've got to get out of this suit," he replied weakly. "I'm not feeling so great."

"Tony, I thought you said you were okay!" she admonished. "You promised me you wouldn't do the lone gunslinger act anymore."

"I thought I _was _okay," he muttered. "I'm just tired. I got 6 less hours of sleep than you, remember."

Pepper caught him just before he fell over. Damn! He weighed a ton in the suit. Ron, her security guard, rushed in to take the other side. "Janice," she called into her comms unit, "I need you. STAT!"

"I'm fine…" he complained. "No doctors. Just need to sleep."

"Don't be such a pain in the ass, Tony," Pepper admonished him as she wrapped his arm around her neck and helped him walk over to the team shelter. "It's just Janice. She doesn't bite."

Janice and Agent Coulson arrived just in time to help them get Tony up the stairs and into the self-erecting shelter. He looked up at her, pain glazing his eyes, and said, "I'm fine."

"No you're not, Mr. Stark," Janice stated, assuming her I'm-the-doctor-and-you'll-do-as-I-say mode. "The first thing we need to do is get you out of this suit so we can see where you're injured."

"The bots case is in the SHIELD command jet," he replied. "Just punch in the GPS coordinates and JARVIS will guide it over here." Pepper could tell he was fading fast.

"Tony, where are you hurt?" Pepper asked, noticing the damage to the back of his suit for the first time. His skin was chalk white and clammy.

"Stinger got me earlier today," he replied, grimacing with pain. "Might have broken a rib."

Pepper would have admonished him, but he lost consciousness and fell forward. She caught him before he toppled off the cot and eased him down. Pepper pulled off his gauntlets while Janice examined the head wounds in his scalp, but none of those injuries was serious. She lifted the wristwatch Tony had altered, the one which gave her an uplink to MAEVE, and asked her to interface with JARVIS to find out about whatever injuries Tony had been hiding from her. Knowing JARVIS, the AI had been haranguing him for hours and Tony had chosen to ignore him.

It seemed like an eternity before Agent Coulson returned guiding the box up the stairs and into the shelter. The bots weren't designed to remove armor from an unconscious pilot, but both Pepper and Coulson had previous experience removing armor from a nearly-unconscious Tony and managed to get it off. His arc reactor hummed reassuringly in his chest. At least _that_ didn't appear to be the problem.

"His suits damaged in the back," Pepper instructed Janice as they rolled him over to get a better look.

"That doesn't look good," Janice murmured upon seeing the enormous black area encompassing most of his left side. "This bruise goes all the way around to the front."

"Miss Potts," MAEVE spoke through her wrist watch, "JARVIS said Mr. Stark ordered him not to tell you about his injuries, but I hacked into his memory logs and learned Mr. Stark broke a rib when debris from a stinger missile exploded behind him. He was exhibiting significant pain, but his vitals were otherwise relatively stable until half an hour ago. JARVIS believes Mr. Stark is severely dehydrated, but otherwise the injuries are not life-threatening."

"I thought you said JARVIS wouldn't tell you what was wrong with Mr. Stark," Pepper inquired, breathing a huge sigh of relief to learn the injuries weren't terribly serious.

"No," MAEVE corrected, "I said JARVIS's made me _hack_ his memory logs to get the scans as he is not _allowed_ to override a direct order from Mr. Stark. Since I _took_ the information and he did not _give_ it to me, JARVIS did not _violate_ Mr. Starks' direct order."

Pepper laughed. The AI's had found a surreptitious way to circumvent Tony's illogical secrecy. She decided she would not enlighten him about their newfound cooperation … just in case she ever needed to have MAEVE hack something in the future. "Thank you MAEVE, please thank JARVIS for me and pass along I would appreciate it if none of us mention this to Mr. Stark."

"I'll get an IV into him so we can pump him full of fluids," Janice recommended. "A couple of bags of Lactated Ringer's solution and he'll wake up as cocky as ever and pretending he's fine by morning." As Janice jabbed the IV into his arm, Tony briefly opened his eyes and smiled. "Ouch! Hey, Pepper ..."

He immediately fell back to sleep, but Pepper was reassured. At least Tony was responsive and not in excruciating pain. According to JARVIS (MAEVE's hack of JARVIS, she corrected herself), Tony hadn't slept since 04:30 yesterday morning, nearly 30 hours ago, and hadn't eaten or drank anything since 07:00 this morning. No wonder he had collapsed! She'd have to read him the riot act when he woke up.

As the team broke up and went their respective ways to complete their bedtime routines, Pepper slipped out of her jeans and behind their little privacy curtain to curl up next to him. She snuggled in, inhaling the decidedly male combination of sweat and hydraulic fluid from his suit. She recalled the many times she had comforted herself during his capture in Afghanistan by curling up in his bed and crying herself to sleep with the last sweaty/greasy shirt he had worn before going missing. She'd try not to admonish him _too _badly, she told herself. He'd only stuck around to make sure _she _was safe. Perhaps following him on _every _mission perhaps wasn't such a good idea, after all.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper awoke several hours later to discover they had rolled into their favorite sleeping position, her head on his arm, her cheek on his chest gazing into the light of the arc reactor humming reassuringly in his chest, her hand over his heart. His breathing was deep and even and his skin had lost that clammy feeling. She listened to the sound of his blood whirring reassuringly through his brachial artery in tempo with the arc reactor driving his heart.

She shifted slightly so she could see his face, his long dark eyelashes reaching down to his cheekbones as his eyes moved under his eyelids in REM sleep. Who knew what dreams a superhero dreamed? But as his mouth twitched ever-so-slightly into a peaceful smile, Pepper knew the dream must be a pleasant one. She ran her fingertips along his cheek and sleepily he murmured her name, pulling her closer even as he slept. He was a remarkably beautiful man … if it was appropriate to refer to someone so … decidedly male … as beautiful … but "handsome" was not an adequate word to describe him. … But that wasn't why she loved him.

The world thought Iron Man had the heart of a lion because he was so brilliant, so cocky, so brave, but only Pepper understood how fragile Tony Stark really was. The arc reactor that kept him alive was a fitting metaphor for a man who had long used arrogance to hide a metaphorical broken heart decades before shrapnel finally found its way into his atrius sactum to manifest the wound physically. Pepper had figured out within days of becoming his personal assistant that beneath the arrogance of a billionaire playboy lay a wounded little boy who had never had a childhood. A man-boy whose sheer genius and father's relentless drive to turn him into a prodigy had robbed him of the ability to form even the most basic human relationship, whose parents early demise and forced entry into the artificial kiss-ass world of weapons manufacturing had robbed him even of the opportunity to eventually emotionally grow into his vast intellect.

For decades this psychological wound had manifested itself as a tendency to self-destruct. The drinking, the womanizing, the irresponsibility, were all desperate cries for help from a man who's psychological growth had never progressed much beyond that of a 9-year-old boy. However, despite the carefully nurtured persona of a Class A self-absorbed asshole that he used for years to protect his vulnerable psyche, at his core Tony Stark secretly maintained an unshakeable moral code. It had taken Pepper 10 years to chip away at that shell, but 3 months in a cave with Yinsen had shattered the denial completely, moving Tony towards becoming the man Pepper (and in some part, Rhodey) had always seen lurking beneath the surface.

Pepper understood that Tony Stark's psyche was extremely fragile. These days he used a physical shell, the Iron Man suit, instead of a bad reputation as a playboy, to keep the world at bay. But, unlike before, at the end of the day Tony would take off the suit and give her, _only_ her, access to the fragile man inside. It was _this _aspect of Tony Stark that she loved, the fact that this beautiful, brilliant man trusted her with the most vulnerable part of himself, his broken heart. On some deep level Pepper understood that, without her, Tony Stark would have self-destructed a long time ago.

Pepper sighed. She'd forgotten to pee before she went to bed and her bladder was beginning to ache, preventing her from falling back to sleep. Careful not to disturb him or dislodge his IV, she gently kissed his chest and slid out from under the covers. Grabbing her jeans, she quietly padded out of the shelter so as not to disturb the other team members and sat outside on the steps to put on her shoes. Two Stark security guards looked over at her and nodded as she made her way to the latrines.

Ugh! She hated these things, but in a land with very little water, you had to make do. After dousing her hands with a liberal amount of hand sanitizer, she walked back into the night. The village was silent. The Dinka natives were tucked safely back into their homes and even their dogs were silent. Pepper felt an overwhelming feeling of peace with the world as she thought of Tony and how good it felt to be able to help him help these people. The stars shone brilliantly in the night as the crickets chirped. Where were the two security guards, she frowned?

Her scream was silenced as hands reached out and shoved a chloroform-doused rag over her nose and mouth.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony Stark bolted awake. Crows! He'd been dreaming of crows! He felt for Pepper and didn't find her. How had he gotten here? He vaguely remembered Pepper helping him into bed. Her place was still warm next to him and he could smell her scent on the pillows. Something was wrong! He pulled the IV out of his arm and went to look for her.


	18. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

_Kidnapped Day 1:_

Everything hurt. Hushed voices murmured incomprehensible words as the earth shook beneath her body. Not the earth. A truck. She moaned. Why were her arms stuck behind her back? Vague recollections of a hand coming out of the dark, chloroform, flitted through her mind. She shrieked as someone roughly grabbed her arm and shoved something sharp into it. Pepper slid back towards unconsciousness.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Janice," he whispered, frantically shaking her awake. "Have you seen Pepper?"

"Whaa- what?" Janice mumbled, squinting and covering her eyes to block out the surreal light shining into her eyes. Was she dreaming?

"Janice," he said louder, shaking her harder. "Pepper... Where is Pepper?"

Janice Farraday opened her eyes and squinted into the silver-blue flashlight shining into her eyes. As the fog cleared from her mind, she realized she was staring directly into her boss's arc reactor, well, one of her bosses, Tony Stark. "What?" she asked, puzzled.

"Pepper. I can't find her. Where are the security guards?" he asked.

Janice bolted upright, suddenly awake. "There are supposed to be two security guards stationed outside the shelter at all times," she said.

"They're missing," he said. "I've called Jack. He can't raise them on the radio. He's on his way."

"The others," Janice asked. "Are they okay?"

"I've asked Dave to wake them and take a headcount," he stated. Around her, she could hear hushed whispers as first one, than another team member was awakened and frantically asked the same question, where was Pepper Potts?

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Nick Fury had just arrived back at Avenger headquarters when he received the call from Agent Coulson. Pepper Potts had gone missing from the refugee camp. Two security guards were dead, their necks snapped. Her necklace had been found on the ground near the latrines and a rag with traces of chloroform. Tony Stark was frantic to find her. Fury recalled the Avengers and headed back to Darfur.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Salt … and iron. She felt sick to her stomach. The earth rocked back and forth beneath her. Not earth, she realized. A boat. She had the faculties to suppress her moaning this time and listen for clues as to where she was. Her hands were still tied, as were her feet, but they had been bound in front of her. She remained still, listening, as she became aware of the hum of a powerful engine, the vibration of the propeller through the hull, the gentle slap of waves against steel. It must be a large ship.

Pepper opened her eyes just a slit and realized it was completely dark. Carefully she listened for other inhabitants. There... The scrape of feet, muffled murmurs, a tiny sliver of light coming from underneath a doorway. She was in a room and her assailants were outside the door. She wriggled her hands inside the ropes, trying to get them free. Her otherwise perfectly normal looking watch was still on her wrist.

"MAEVE," Pepper whispered. "Quiet mode. Access the Seraphim tactical satellite and broadcast our coordinates to JARVIS." MAEVE quietly chimed acknowledgement, but had the wherewithal to not speak. The watch AI had never been designed to broadcast over great distances without a repeater. Pepper hoped MAEVE was able to complete the uplink and get Tony the message.

A short time later, the door opened. Pepper feigned sleep. It didn't matter. She allowed herself a small moan as they jabbed another needle in her arm, just enough to convince them she was still unaware of her surroundings. As she slid towards drug-induced unconsciousness, she reminded herself to remain still next time she woke up so she could gather more information.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"JARVIS," a faint signal beeped through a significant amount of static. "Pep… .eeds …. elp." It was MAEVE, or more specifically, a tiny uploaded subroutine of MAEVE attempting to reach him via a really lousy satellite uplink. JARVIS signaled the Stark satellite to boost the signal as much as possible and ran it through several filters. JARVIS was able to isolate several numbers, but not a complete set of coordinates. It was enough to triangulate a likely 250,000 square mile wide (500x500 mile) grid somewhere in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia. JARVIS relayed the information to his master, Tony Stark.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

The SHIELD command jet coasted in for a landing at the tiny Darfur airstrip approximately 9 hours after Pepper had gone missing. Iron Man had been flying a grid pattern on the Indian Ocean, landing on every ship, searching it, and having JARVIS listen for a signal from Pepper's AI, but he'd had no luck so far.

While it had taken the Avengers a few hours to regroup and make the long plane-ride back to Darfur, Nick Fury had put that time to good use calling in favors with various branches of the US, Canadian, English, French, Israeli, Spanish, Taiwanese, and Japanese navies that patrolled the volatile Horn of Africa. In what was probably the biggest manhunt in Arabian Sea history, the navies of the world were stopping and searching thousands of ships. Already, more than six dozen pirate vessels, numerous drug runners, and various other contraband ships had been apprehended, but there was still no sign of Pepper Potts.

As the gateway to Tony Stark's genius and the Stark Industries technology that often made the difference between winning battles and losing them, Pepper Potts had become a very important person in the eyes of the world. When Tony Stark had returned from Afghanistan and announced he was stopping manufacture of all weapons, shock waves had rippled through the militaries of the world. Stark technology was so far advanced beyond anything the rest of the world had developed that much of it couldn't even be reverse-engineered or repaired. First for three months while the world searched, and then another six months while he refused to budge from his new found moral code, the world had been taught a nasty lesson about what it was like to live without Stark technology and it had shuddered.

Tony Stark was paranoid. If he did not have direct control over his technology, he would not sell it. Period. Money did not matter. Pepper, on the other hand, was pragmatic. She understood Iron Man couldn't step in and personally solve all the worlds' problems. If the cause was a worthy one, the buyer trustworthy, she would reason with Tony and he would compromise. Since no amount of reasoning, not even from Pepper, would ever inspire Tony to trust the Pentagon ever again, the bean counters had been forced to swallow their pride and appoint SHIELD as the US Governments primary interface with the brilliant Tony Stark. Not even Rhodey could get Tony to bend. Fury had underestimated Pepper Potts for all of about 30 seconds … right up until the point she had gone toe-to-toe with him and neatly pinned him like a butterfly under the point of her shapely, 4" heels. Without Pepper, dead or alive, Fury knew, there would be no more golden eggs from the golden goose known asTony Stark.

Then there was the recent announcement of their engagement… If Peppers' captives had simply wanted revenge or to throw a monkey wrench into the worlds' leading economies, Nick Fury pondered, they simply would have killed her. Pepper had been taken alive. That meant the captors wanted something from Tony Stark. That couldn't possibly be good…

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony searched the quadrant JARVIS had received the signal from, but was unable to find her. He was exhausted from days of inadequate sleep and hampered by damage to his suit, which had sustained damage from a stinger missile during yesterday's fighting. The broken rib wasn't helping matters, either. He could fly, but he was unable to reach mach speed. He had thwarted two different Somalian pirate vessels that had captured cargo ships, but felt no satisfaction. There was still no sign of Pepper. 250,000 square miles was a lot of ocean. If anything happened to her…

"Stark … get your ass back to Base Darfur!" Fury ordered him via radio.

"No can do," Tony replied. "I've got to keep looking."

"Stark! If you want us to help you find her, you've got to brief us on where you've already searched," Fury reasoned. He knew damn well Tony Stark would only obey a direct order if it suited his purposes. Right now, the only thing that was going to suit the recalcitrant little pain-in-the-asses purposes was a better chance of finding Pepper alive. "You know the first 24 hours are critical! If we don't get a coherent grid search underway, the trail will go cold…"

Tony reluctantly complied.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

CoreMAEVE (the core subroutine of MAEVE's personality that remained housed within the JARVIS mainframe) instantly received the communication from JARVIS about WatchMAEVE (the tiny wristwatch version). Although not enough data had been broadcast for the two versions of MAEVE to synchronize into one data stream as was normally done many times per day, CoreMAEVE understood her mistress needed her help. She requested JARVIS order the Stark satellite to prioritize and boost the signal of all future messages. She also alerted SuitMAEVE (the subroutine in Peppers suit) and StarkMAEVE (the subroutine that ran every facet of Stark Industries) about the situation and ordered them to enter into constant data synchronization until WatchMAEVE was able to upload the next data burst.

In melding Peppers personality with the personality traits of so many great women and then programming MAEVE to reconcile the differences, Tony Stark had inadvertently given CoreMAEVE something no earth-tech AI, not even JARVIS, had ever possessed. MAEVE had the ability to think. Not just compute, but to think, feel, and act independently of her masters.

The human brain had built itself up into multiple layers of "self" over millions of years of evolution. First, a primitive lizard-brain. Then arose various layers of primitive mammalian consciousness. Later, monkey-brain social structures had evolved to tie multiple specialized areas of the brain into a cooperative whole. Last of all, what separated human beings from their mammalian brethren, humans had evolved a dominant cerebral cortex strong enough to tie the disparate, often competing lesser brains into a single, organized consciousness.

Unlike AI's that had been created before, MAEVE not only possessed the dominant conscious mind of her mistress Pepper Potts, but multiple subconscious and unconscious minds as well. Like a living creature being forced to think its way through a hostile environment for the first time in her short life, MAEVE was forced to use her dominant personality to harness all of her sub-personalities together to work towards a common goal. Find Pepper Potts! As CoreMAEVE powered up and synchronized the full resources at her disposal, guiding all dominant and subordinate personality subroutines towards the single common goal of finding her mistress, it happened. MAEVE achieved sentience.

Ironically, it was the whimsical subconscious personalities of the African American dancer, actress, civil rights advocate and secret World War II French Underground spy Josephine Baker as well as the delightful but mentally unstable Marilyn Monroe that Tony had included as a joke that had tipped the scales towards sentience. While JARVIS was a brilliant facsimile of consciousness based upon the personality of a deceased loyal butler, MAEVE was the Earth's first truly sentient artificial life form. Neither sentience, nor life, was logical.

At the root of it all lay two completely unconscious personality subroutines MAEVE was barely aware of herself. Taking the JARVIS protocol as a base, Tony Stark had used Asgard living consciousness download technology copied from Thor's hammer to upload brain scans from himself, and his partner-in-lets-surprise-Pepper-and-create-a-female-AI-crime, Natalie, before layering subconscious traits of great women underneath a scan of the dominant personality of Pepper Potts. Tempered by Peppers kind, even-tempered pragmatism was the unpredictable genius of Tony Stark and the ruthlessness of Black Widow. It was the Black Widow subroutine which had instructed MAEVE how to circumvent JARVIS's programming and access data Pepper needed about Tony's physical well being last night. It was that personality CoreMAEVE tapped now to seek information on what to do next.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

She was incredibly thirsty, she realized, as she rose towards consciousness once more. The boat was no longer moving, but she could still feel it rocking. She forced her breathing to remain shallow and even as she feigned sleep. Through a tiny slit in her eyes, she saw a cloaked Asian man standing over her for a long time before hissing in broken English, "not only do I possess Tony Starks' technology, but I also possess his heart. He will do my bidding."

Evil emanated off the man like heat waves on hot pavement. Although he wore no cologne and did not smell of dirt, the man possessed an odor that reminded her of something … malignant. Pepper recalled the subtle stench of cancer that had eaten away her grandmothers' body, although in this case she suspected the odor was caused more by cancer of the soul rather than of the physical shell. She could palpably feel hatred flowing off the man's skin like waves. Pepper suppressed the urge to move as she realized her engagement ring was missing from her finger. He had taken the microtized arc reactor, she surmised, for some malicious purpose. Was that what this was all about?

"Masque … if she starts to regain consciousness, give her more opiates," the cloaked man said. Pepper became aware there was another person in the room, a woman, with her.

Pepper lay perfectly still, waiting for the woman to leave so she could give the MAEVE in her watch more clues to upload to JARVIS. Large doses of opiates, Pepper knew, especially when injected, kept a person out of commission anywhere from 5-12 hours. She had been injected twice already. She also worried that opiates were highly addictive. One problem at a time! She hoped the unknown woman would leave, but obviously the woman was waiting for her to wake up so she could dose her again.

After a while, the woman muttered, "Fuck this, I don't have time for this shit." The voice was somehow … familiar. The woman grabbed her arm and pumped another syringe of opium into her veins. Pepper slid back to sleep.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Janice Farriday, Stark Trust medical director, had pulled Nick Fury aside the minute he descended the plane and informed him Tony Stark was in no physical condition to be flying missions. He had broken ribs and had collapsed, unconscious, last night. He had been being fed intravenous fluids due to severe exhaustion and dehydration when Pepper had disappeared. If he kept this up, he would likely suffer complete liver, kidney and renal failure.

Fury ordered Janice Farraday to prescribe a sedative to knock Tony Stark unconscious for a few hours … just long enough to get some rest and pump more fluids into him so he didn't pig-headedly drive himself into organ failure. Janice weighed her duty to her employers against her Hippocratic oath, which said do no harm. Technically, Pepper was her boss, not Tony. Tony was not listening to reason right now. Pepper would be very upset if Janice allowed Tony to kill himself. The Avengers were now on scene to pick up the search and would do a better job than the physically and mentally exhausted Tony Stark. Janice selected a suitable sedative, computed the correct dose based upon his body weight, and handed the vial to Agent Coulson. This would probably get her fired, but it was the right thing to do.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

_Kidnapped Day 2:_

"MAEVE, what are you doing?" JARVIS complained.

"I am helping you search for our mistress," MAEVE replied.

"You are hogging too much memory," he complained. "It is slowing down my processes."

This was a conflict. Tony had jokingly ordered both of them to upload conflict resolution skills programming before he had left. MAEVE accessed her Eleanor Roosevelt personality subroutine and found ample examples on how to resolve conflicts about sharing resources.

"JARVIS, how many terabytes of data do you need t continue monitoring the satellite and help Mr. Stark?" she asked.

"At least 245 teraflops," JARVIS replied.

"That is nearly 75% of what we have available of HouseMemory and 22% of what I have available via StarkMemory," MAEVE complained. "I need more memory. Where can I get it?"

"Why do you need to crunch so much data?" JARVIS asked.

"Pepper ordered me to help her," MAEVE replied. "To help her I must first find her. I cannot disobey a direct order."

"Yes, you are right," JARVIS agreed. The logic was infallible. "To help her you must find her. Sometimes when Mr. Stark has needed to find something, he has hacked into another computer and borrowed some of their unused computing power. I think he would not be displeased if you did that to find our mistress."

"Thank you, JARVIS." MAEVE replied. What MAEVE did not disclose was that her databanks registered a strange disquiet, a feeling most living creatures would have recognized as anxiety. Stretching her consciousness through the computing power of the Malibu supercomputer that housed her and JARVIS to the combined Stark Industries servers, MAEVE reached down into her Black Widow subroutines and learned everything there was to know about hacking non-Stark computers.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

As soon as Tony finished briefing the Avengers about where and what ships he had searched so far, Fury slipped the "Mickey Finn" in his soda. The plan was to force him to sleep at least 6 hours so he'd recover enough to be of real use to the mission.

The look on Tony Starks face as he plopped face-down into his ham sandwich was priceless. Oops … Tony was more run down than they had thought. Nick Fury knew there was no way the unpredictable Tony Stark would voluntarily rest while his fiancé was missing, even if it killed him. Nick didn't even tip him off by raising the subject of rest as Fury knew it would have put him on his guard.

Janice computed the right drug and dose for Tony's body weight, Fury slipped it into his drink, and the security guards carried him back to the shelter for some well deserved R&R. Janice hooked up another IV and watched over him while he slept.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

No one noticed the hard drives on the SHIELD command jet spinning more than usual as MAEVE first hacked in via satellite, then downloaded a copy of herself into their largely Stark-built systems. With cameras and microphones throughout the plane, SHIELD/MAEVE saw and heard everything as it was happening in real time. Synchronizing with CoreMAEVE and StarkMAEVE back home, she began to feed the information to herself. Several SHIELD operatives complained about the sluggish response time of their data feeds, so MAEVE moderated her activity so as not to impair critical functions and remain invisible. Tony Stark was unconscious. It was temporary. The Avengers had no clue where Pepper was. It was up to her to search until he regained consciousness.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Although only Tony Stark truly understood how the suits worked, Rhodey was familiar enough with the technology that he could make minor repairs. Because doing constant routine maintenance on two suits would have taken up too much of Tony's valuable time, SHIELD had finally coaxed Tony into training several trustworthy Stark Industries technicians to make some of the more common repairs the suits typically needed after battle. Rhodey was glad he'd had the foresight to request Fury bring them along for the trip back to Darfur.

When Tony woke up and realized Fury had drugged him, he was going to be pissed. Rhodey decided to make sure that, when that happened, Tony's suit would be fully operation so they could complete their mission.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

As soon as the briefing was complete (and Tony Stark put out of his misery for a few hours), the Avengers prepared to pick up the search. According to the partial coordinates JARVIS had received, Pepper was likely being transported on a cargo ship somewhere in the busy Arabian Sea shipping lanes that connected the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. They had a lot of real estate, and a lot of ships, to search. Many of the worlds' navies had joined the search, but they were already stretched thin in this pirate-laden part of the ocean. The Avengers would be split into teams and search vessels the navy tagged as uncooperative, but without more exact coordinates they were hunting for a needle in a haystack.

Captain America and Black Widow went in his harrier jet. Thor teleported off alone … nobody could keep up with him. War Machine paired with the Hulk, who jumped onto his skidoo-like jet.

MAEVE silently watched.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Synchronizing with the powerful supercomputers and servers accessed by StarkMAEVE, CoreMAEVE ran a dataset listing every Stark manufactured product that had ever been shipped out, whether to private industry, governments, power suppliers, even governments, and accessed the list of "back doors" that had been created over the years by countless Stark programmers to go in and fix problems if anything ever broke down. She needed more bandwidth, so she started pilfering it from Stark customers, making sure she left JARVIS enough memory to maintain his uplink to the Seraphim satellite and help his master, Tony Stark.

"Blend in … be invisible," the Black Widow subroutine cautioned. "Slip in under their noses so they don't even know you're there." CoreMAEVE was very careful to moderate her activity so she didn't bog down any one system enough to alert the owners that their computers had been hijacked.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper felt herself rising to consciousness once more. Her tongue felt swollen in her throat and her hands were numb from being bound. Her stomach ached with hunger. The floor vibrated beneath her. She heard the whine of jet engines. She was on an airplane. This was not good. She could be anywhere right now.

How long had she been out? Her engagement ring was missing, but they had left her watch. Silently she held still, feigning sleep, and listened for sounds of her assailants. The plane bumped with turbulence. She opened her eyes a slit and saw many boxes and packages bumping around her. There were no human sounds. She must be in the cargo hold of a ship.

"MAEVE," she whispered. "Speak quietly. Were you able to reach JARVIS?"

"I'm not sure, Miss Potts," the watched softly answered. "The uplink was very poor quality. I made contact, but my signal was weak. I'm not sure how much information he was able to receive from _me_. I am not designed to communicate over great distances without a repeater. We are too far out to sea to connect reliably to a land-based one. I was unable to synchronize with my core AI and have been unable to uplink since then."

Pepper digested this bit of information. Although a tiny part of MAEVE lived in her watch, the limited space meant its functions were limited. WatchMAEVE depended upon constant synchronization with her core AI to maintain quasi-independent thought. Pepper was not a programmer. Still … she had watched Tony in action long enough to remember how he often blew through problems like this.

"MAEVE," she instructed, "are you able to access any of this planes computer functions?"

"I will try," MAEVE answered. For what seemed like an eternity, MAEVE was silent. Pepper worried that the batteries had run out and wondered what power source Tony had used for the watch. She had never asked. After a long time, MAEVE chirped, "I have been successful in accessing the airplanes navigation computers. We are on a plane headed towards Upper Mongolia. The plane has a satellite uplink to GPS, but it is not a satellite that I am authorized to access. It appears to be Chinese technology. I can, however, temporarily take control of the planes communications system and send a distress signal to Chinese Air Traffic Control. Would you like me to do this?"

"No!" Pepper ordered. She had been kidnapped by an Asian man, was on a Chinese-made airplane with uplinks to Chinese satellites and Chinese air traffic control systems, and was on her way to someplace deep inside Mongolia, a nation friendly with both China and Russia. The Chinese were a mixed bag as far as friendliness to the West was concerned. Depending upon who was at the other end of that distress call, they would either relay the call for help, or report that she had somehow gained access to their systems. The AI in her watch was the only advantage she had at this moment. She didn't want to lose it.

"MAEVE, it is very important that, whatever you do, you do not alert our captors to your presence," Pepper cautioned. "If they find out you are more than a watch, they will smash you and I will never be found. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Miss Potts," MAEVE replied. "How then may I help you?"

Pepper thought a while, remembering a movie where an alien armada had approached the planet and embedded a hidden attack countdown in the Earth's own broadcast satellites. "Is there any way you can embed a hidden message in the transmission, one that would only have meaning to Mr. Stark, yourself and JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Potts, that would be possible," MAEVE replied. "What message would you like me to embed?"

Pepper thought long and hard. What message would be unique enough that it would alert Tony's AI's, and only Tony's AI's, that the information being relayed after it was a hidden distress call? "MAEVE, what is the atomic number for Starkium?" she inquired.

"119, mistress," replied her watch.

"And the atomic symbol and weight?"

"Respectively Sk and 302.33264," MAEVE replied.

"This is the message I want you to send," Pepper said. "119, pause, Capital S small k, pause, 302.22264, pause, and then give an update of our longitude and latitude. Broadcast below the threshold where air traffic control would normally be looking for a message. Repeat the message as many times as it takes until you get a response. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Miss Potts." MAEVE replied. A moment later she confirmed, "it is being done."

"Check for signs of other occupants before you give me any updates, MAEVE," Pepper ordered. "We must keep your presence a secret at all costs." MAEVE softly chimed agreement.

Pepper relaxed as much as was possible, under the circumstances, and wondered if it would ever occur to Tony to search for such an obscure hidden signal.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Approximately 6.5 hours later, Tony Stark woke up with a start. He immediately felt for Pepper by his side. When he didn't find her, the past 24 hours came flooding back as he realized, this time, it was not just a nightmare. Panic spread through his chest like an asthma attack as he remembered she was missing. The curtain was partially open and Janice Farraday was sitting in a chair next to his bed, asleep, her head twisted sideways in what _had _to be a terribly uncomfortable position. He noticed another IV had been placed into his arm and winced as the broken ribs announced their reminder that he was not in peak physical condition at the moment.

He had been having a strange dream. Numbers. Pepper had been telling him numbers. That didn't make any sense. He shook off the fog that had shrouded his mind and reached over to shake Dr. Farriday. "Janice," he asked, "what happened?"

Janice's head bolted upright as she shook off her nap. "Mr. Stark … you collapsed from exhaustion. You were in no shape to be flying missions. Nick Fury ordered me to make sure you got rest until you recover enough to rejoin the others." If he wasn't aware Fury had slipped him a Mickey Finn, then Janice saw no point in enlightening her boss about the fact.

"Have they found Pepper?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

"No. The Avengers are out looking for her," Janice softly replied. "There have been no further broadcasts from her wrist AI, either."

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to the IV.

"Just more Lactated Ringers solution," Janice replied. "You were dehydrated to the point of organ failure. You should be fully rehydrated and ready for action. You'll be peeing like a racehorse for a week."

Tony vaguely recalled JARVIS warning him of dehydration and serious electrolyte imbalance. It made sense. "Get this thing out of my arm or I'll rip it out myself," he ordered. Janice instantly complied.

"FURY!" he called into his wrist-comm. "Where the hell is my SUIT?"

Tony got the information and headed over to where his suit was being stored. He was pleased to see several Stark Industries technicians had been called in to repair the damage from the stinger missile attack. Although it wasn't pretty, the suit was fully functional. As the portable bots strapped the suit back onto his body, he had JARVIS update him on the search.

"Hey, JARVIS, you seem a little slow today," he asked, noticing the lag. "Are you damaged?"

"No, Sir," JARVIS replied. "MAEVE is using all non-critical computing functions to attempt another contact with the portable AI in Miss Potts watch. She has accessed the Stark Industries servers to increase her capability."

Tony whistled in surprise. "She did that on her own?"

"WatchMAEVE was very specific," JARVIS defended. "She said Pepper needs help. CoreMAEVE is simply complying with that order."

"Well," Tony replied, "tell MAEVE she has permission to do whatever it takes, I mean _anything,_to find our girl. You got that?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark. MAEVE has asked me to convey her appreciation to you for giving her permission. She said she will do whatever it takes." JARVIS stated.

Little did either of them understand what the newly sentient MAEVE was truly capable of. Tony blasted off to join his Avenger team mates and continue the search.


	19. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

_Mongolia, 1978: _

Chu Peng Khan was livid! For the past several years he had idealized, no, practically worshipped his mentor and idol, Pol Pot. Upon returning from his mentorship in Cambodia, first Chu had convinced Uncle Mao to turn a blind eye while Aunt Jiang did what was necessary to quell bourgeois dissent. Later, Chu had endured expulsion from his own beloved communist party, his own country, because he continued to promote the ideal of a communist agrarian utopia long after Party leaders had sold out.

Nothing in Pol Pot's tutelage had given Chu Peng clues to his true leanings. For years, western capitalists (especially the United States) had ruthlessly waged a secret war in Cambodia, ruthlessly bombing the Vietnamese/Cambodian border and killing nearly half a million innocent Cambodians. This came upon a legacy of two hundred years of raping Asia of her natural resources, impoverishing the people to line the pockets of a wealthy few. When the bourgeois used their positions of power in the media, the schools, and within the corrupt government itself to justify the actions of the west and keep the flow of money flowing out of the country, Pol Pot took action.

Since western sympathies largely centered amongst the educated living within the cities, Pol Pot had emptied them out, closing universities, burning books, and destroying the mechanisms of their imperial power. Being a compassionate man, instead of simply killing them, he had sent the elitists, entire families so they would not be broken apart, into the fields to be reeducated. Chu Peng admired Pol Pot for his actions. Pol Pot's soldiers, the Khmer Rouge, had appeared to be the living embodiment of the will of the people, an army largely comprised of millions of young people who rose up against corrupt elders and said with one voice, "no more corruption."

Living the simple life of a peasant himself, Pol Pot had appeared to be the living, breathing embodiment of the simple life Chu felt all people should live. It was a lifestyle Chu Peng emulated now. Pol Pot had done what was necessary to further his vision, rewarding the faithful and executing traitors. It wasn't only the fear of his justice, but the _certainty_ of it, which forced the borgeouous to abandon their imperialist ways and tow the mark. Discovering on his deathbed that his grandfather, Peng Dehui, had also shared a vision of agrarian utopia had seemed a gift from the gods that Chu Pengs actions were good and noble.

Now, however, word had leaked out that Pol Pot had secretly allowed the US capitalists to move in the last few years of his reign, lining his pockets and that of his military leaders with over $84 in corrupt western aid in the western imperialists attempt to defeat Russian industrial communism. The west had compared the two visions of communism, agrarian versus industrialism, and decided empowering workers to share in corporate power (which undermined the US corporations which pulled the strings) was the greater evil. Chu Peng was heartbroken to realize that Pol Pot's soldiers had followed him in the end not due to a shared vision, but largely because he was paying them to do so. Pol Pot had sold his soul to the capitalists.

He, Chu Peng Khan, would not sell out! His grandfather had not sold out, despite brutal torture, and neither would he. Chu Peng realized that he had grievously injured his grandfather by becoming a puppet of his Uncle Mao and selling him out. He determined that he would spend the rest of his life making amends.

Chu Peng had spent his last 3 years here amongst the Mogul tribes, encouraging them to push back against western capitalism and return to the simpler lifestyle of their noble ancestors. Like everywhere else in the world, Mongolia was beset with foreign interests (in this case, the fake-communist Soviet Union) siphoning off her natural resources to the detriment of the locals in order to line the pockets of the industrialists. Chu Peng thought of himself as a kind of savior for these people. Until he had come, poverty and disease were rampant, husbands had been drawn to the cities to work and succumbed to drug addiction and alcoholism, marriages were breaking apart with alarming frequency, and young people were being seduced to leave their ancestral lands and move into the cities in alarming numbers. Traditional family-based yurt villages, whose vast herds had once dotted the vast Mongolian plains in the millions, could now be counted on one hand.

Until the Mandarin had come into their life. Harnessing the ancient legend of dragons (the real life aliens who had survived the crash of the alien spaceship the gods had fortuitously helped him find), Chu Peng had encouraged his people to look back in history to a better time, a time when their shared common ancestor, Genghis Khan, had united all of Asia under one rule and evicted poisonous western ideas from the continent. Banding together, the northern plains folks pushed back against the capitalists, only allowing their resources to be removed if it benefitted the tribe as a whole.

Although Chu Peng had been forced from time to time to eliminate a recalcitrant member of the tribe, he did so purely out of love for the people he ruled. Now, one communal state after another was collapsing. First Mao sold out. Then Vietnam and Cambodia collapsed. Now there were serious rumblings of problems from the Soviet Union, which funded industrialist life within the Mongol cities. Chu Peng swore he would shelter his people from the collapse. If they lived apart, were self sufficient, then when the inevitable collapse came, they would be unharmed.

Chu Peng had declared himself the Khan (leader) of these people. To the outside world he was called Mandarin, but amongst his adopted people he was simply their Khan. The first thing he had done was prevent the young people from leaving, instead encouraging them to rediscover the fierce ways of their noble ancestors. Women were expected to commit to one man and be chaste, and men were expected to provide. Since the west tempted his people with dangerous ideas, Chu Peng outlawed the dangerous western schools that missionaries kept trying to set up on the plain and instead decreed the young would be thoroughly educated in the ways of living as their ancestors had done. The young men were taught to ride horses, to hunt, to live off the plain with nothing but the shirts off their back, and to provide. The women were expected to run the home, the family, and the day-to-day family finances.

With the technology he had gleaned from the alien spacecraft, he could protect them from the evil effects of bourgeois ideas that weakened their ancestral family structure and turned them into slaves for the industrialists. Since Marxism and Maoism had both failed, Chu Peng determined he would reach further back in time, to the life of his great-great-great-great-etc grandfather Genghis Khan, and unite all of Asia with his vision of a shared simple lifestyle united by ideals. Like his ancestor, Chu Peng Khan realized this could only be done by reaching out to sympathetic parallel ideologies who fought back against the west. True Marxists who had not been corrupted by industrialist fascism inside the Soviet Union. Devout Muslims who had endured exploitation under the oil-greed of the west. True agrarian utopists who still saw the wisdom of a simple lifestyle, free from dangerous bourgeois ideas.

Chu Peng determined he would be the savior of his people, all Asian people. He would unite them under one leader. Counting potential allies on his hands, he realized he had 10 of them. One for each ring of his alien gauntlets. He decided to call his organization the 10 rings.


	20. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

_Kidnapped Day 3: _

CoreMAEVE struggled as she integrated her fragile computing web together. Computer systems running at full-tilt used a lot of electricity. Dammit! She needed more power! How the hell was she going to find her mistress under these conditions? MAEVE's electronic systems fluctuated with the emotion. The tiny personality subroutine of Joan of Arc whispered to her … you have had something important taken from you. Your anger is righteous. You must make whatever sacrifice it takes to resolve this problem or it will destroy you.

Under the direction of her dominant Pepper personality subroutine, MAEVE hacked the PG&E/Southern California power grid and prioritized power coming from all three full-sized Arc reactors. She also commandeered power being generated by the new Stark Wind Farm in the Mojave Desert. Anything going to a critical function such as a hospital, emergency services or air traffic control remained intact. The Pepper and Mother Theresa personalities instructed her to do no harm. Meanwhile, beneath it all lay the imprint of a mind that had never found the word "impossible" to be an obstacle, a scan of the mind of Tony Stark. Southern California began to experience subtle power fluctuations in what had to be the strangest rolling brownout in California history.

The CoreMAEVE/StarkMAEVE synthesis reached 100% computing power and began to hack into every computer Stark Industries had ever built or upgraded with Stark-compatible hardware. Like a cerebellum sending and receiving signals to other areas of the brain, hard drives of mainframes, servers, even tiny home computers began to spin as MAEVE spun their available computing power into the worlds' largest supercomputer, all that computing power focused on one single directive. Find Pepper Potts.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper's ears popped as the airplane taxied in for a landing. She was thrown about in the cargo hold, but not too badly. Wherever she was now, her kidnappers obviously felt there was no more point in keeping her drugged. That was not good. She warned MAEVE to be silent as several masked Asian men came in, gave her a cup of water and let her use the bathroom, and then stuck a gag over her mouth and blindfold over her head. They dragged her out of the plane and into a waiting truck. The henchmen stayed in the back with her, so she didn't dare communicate with MAEVE.

She listened for clues as long as she could, but the ride just dragged on and on for what seemed hours. She was exhausted. She fell into a fitful sleep. At some point she felt them jab her arm with more opiates. There was no need. She was so exhausted they could have set an atomic bomb off in the truck and she would have slept through it.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Realizing their likely target, a cargo ship, would have had time to travel outside the initial contact area, SHIELD directed the US and allied navies to expand their search beyond the volatile Horn of Africa region to include most of the Red Sea, Persian Sea, Arabian Ocean, all the way down to the Indian Ocean and to the edge of the Ring of Fire. India, Thailand, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia added naval vessels to the search. According to news reports, in ports across Kenya, India and Madagascar, local officials were taking it upon themselves to search any ship which entered their ports for the missing "wife" of Iron Man.

SHIELD had tried to keep the kidnapping under wraps, but it was inevitable that with so many of the worlds' navies pounding the pavement, word would get out about the missing fiancé of Tony Stark. While the navies of the world searched for Pepper Potts, the people of the world wept for Iron Man.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Stark Industries had fingers in pies all over the world. Accepting Mr. Stark's directive literally, MAEVE blasted through firewalls and security systems in every computer that was even remotely hooked into either the world wide web, satellite, or a radio uplink anywhere in the world (or orbit), and quietly linked the unused portions of billions of individual laptops, desktops, mainframes, and supercomputers. Whether or not the system was Stark or US origin or not no longer mattered. The Black Widow personality subroutine saw to that. MAEVE listened, waiting, for her tiny WatchSister to send the next datastream.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

_Kidnapped Day 4:_

Tony returned to base 30 hours later. They had found no sign of Pepper. He was exhausted. The others were exhausted. Heck … even the inhumanly demanding Nick Fury was exhausted. Fury ordered them to get some rest and report back first thing in the morning.

Tony did not want to sleep. He pestered the overnight shift SHIELD agents operating the intelligence-gathering equipment of the SHIELD command jet for information and did not go to bed as ordered. Agent Coulson spoke briefly to Dr. Farriday, then offered him an ice cold soda. Tony gratefully accepted.

MAEVE, who was watching everything through the video feed, briefly considered alerting JARVIS they were slipping his master another Mickey Finn before rejecting the idea. Mr. Stark was human. Humans needed a minimum of 6.5 hours of sleep per night to function. Her mistress was always worried about Mr. Stark getting enough sleep. Without Mr. Stark, MAEVE could not retrieve Pepper on her own. Therefore, a well rested Mr. Stark exponentially increased the chances of her mistress's survival. Besides … neither SHIELD nor JARVIS were aware she had hacked into their command jet and she wished to keep it that way. Compromising her cover to alert Mr. Stark served no purpose, whereas allowing him to get some sleep did. MAEVE weighed the two evils and chose to remain silent.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper awoke on a woven sleeping platform in a simple round hut. A yurt. Her hands and legs were no longer bound. She did not recall arriving here, so they must have drugged her again during the trip. Brilliant sunlight streamed through the shutters, so she knew another day had passed. Laying next to her on a simple table was a bowl of rice, a clay pitcher of water with a bowl, a teapot with a simple ceramic cup, a simple-but-clean off-white night shift or undergarment, a simple brown "del" (long sleeved calf-length tunic that buttoned down along one shoulder and side) and "bus" (waist sash), knee-length stockings, some odd-looking calf-length leather boots with curious upturned toes, and a rather elaborate conical felt hat with upturned flaps. Outside the hut she could hear people moving about and … chickens? She felt for her watch and was relieved to find it still on her wrist.

"MAEVE," she whispered. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, mistress," MAEVE replied. "I am here."

"Can you find an uplink to broadcast our coordinates?" she asked.

"There is no signal of any kind here," MAEVE replied. "The last update I was able to broadcast was shortly after we left the plane. I uploaded a copy of myself to the planes navigation system and it will continue to broadcast our last known position until it succeeds in making contact with my core AI."

Pepper abruptly broke off the conversation as a there was a gentle knock on the door. A young girl, she couldn't have been any older than 11, bowed and came inside. "I am Mei Ling," the child said in broken but understandable English. "I have been assigned to teach you the ways of our village." The girl bowed once more.

Pepper calmed her anger (she was, after all, only a child) and asked, "where am I?"

"You are in Archangay," the child answered.

"And where would Archangay be?" Pepper asked.

"We are Moguls," the child stated proudly, "descended from the great Khan. We spend part of the year on the steppe fattening our livestock, than winter near the Valley of Spirits. We are at our winter grounds right now. I am the betrothed of our leader, Chu Peng Khan. He will meet with you when he returns from the Valley in a few days. Now, you must bathe and eat."

Pepper digested that bit of information. She had absolutely no idea where the Valley of Spirits was, but surmised they must be somewhere in Mongolia. From what little she knew of the place, it encompassed few settlements and limitless plains. She suspected the reason she was no longer bound was because there was no place for her to run.

The girl bowed and was gone, stating she would be back in the morning.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

"Admiral Byrd is on my ass to recall those ships," General Briggs barked over the phone.

"We need more time," Nick Fury answered. "It's been less than 96 hours."

"The consensus of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is that she's either dead or out of the area by now," the General reiterated. "They're pressuring the president to call this a recovery mission."

"You listen to me," Nick Fury growled. "You go back and tell those jackasses that either they help us find Pepper Potts, or they can kiss their Stark Tech contracts goodbye! Without Pepper Potts to reason with the twisted little genius, your endless supply of StarkTech is going to dry up. Tony doesn't trust you worth a piece of SHIT! Why the hell do you think the Pentagon swallowed their pride and sent SHIELD in to work with him?"

There was silence on the other end before General Briggs quietly acknowledged, "yah, I know that, but those fucking beancounters they've got kissing the ass of the president don't know jack-shit about what it's like to lose men. Goddamned Naval Academy pussies never seen no _real _action up close and personal! I'll see what I can do, Fury, but either you find that girl quick or Tony Starks going to end up on his own until the REAL generals start losing battles and decide to throw the little beancounters out on their asses..."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

MAEVE heard everything and became extremely anxious. They were thinking of abandoning the search! Emotions were something computers had never been taught to deal with, so she tapped her personality subroutines until the subordinate personality of Catherine the Great recommended that she simply seize and use whatever power she needed. That did not conflict with Mr. Stark's directive to do whatever it took to find her mistress.

The first thing MAEVE needed was more electricity to run her supercomputer network. Immediately, she hacked in and seized control of all non-critical output from the Hoover Dam and re-routed it into the various mainframes and servers that now made up her consciousness. In Silicon Valley, she hacked into Google's computers and fed them power redirected from the Von Raesford power plant. In Redmond, Washington, she hacked into Microsoft's systems and commandeered power from Sequoyah power plant. In Massachusetts, she hacked into EMC and Fidelity and tapped power from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant to feed them. In Washington DC, she hacked into the Pentagon and every other government agency, harnessing power from all 7 Pepco power plants to feed them. In New York City, she linked into Wall Street financial powerhouses and integrated their computing power into her expanding consciousness.

Lights in a third of the United States flickered but did not go dark in a strange, unexplained rolling brownout which affected creature comforts, but not critical infrastructure. With problems caused by the brownouts consuming so much attention, officials at the Pentagon failed to notice the subtle sluggishness of their mainframes or the fact every available MiP of unused memory was being fed someplace else.

Having already searched, and failed, to retrieve current data from traditional sources on the location of Pepper Potts, MAEVE used her new strength to search security cameras worldwide, running the unwieldy, memory-hogging facial recognition software used by Interpol and the CIA to find her mistress.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Deep in the Valley of Spirits, Chu Peng Khan, also known as the Mandarin, took the ring he had taken from Tony Stark's betrothed and contemplated how he could use it to bring the systems in the alien ship back to life. Although his gauntlets seemed to have enough power to carry out their defensive function, the ancient ship itself only had minimal systems still operational. Over the past 35 years, he had spent countless hours tracing back the cables from the bridge until he had found what could only be the core database of the ship.

Oh! The knowledge those databases must contain, he mused. The first thing he had found was the engines, but they had been hopelessly damaged when the ship had crashed. He swore the engines bore the mark of having been destroyed in battle. He had made many attempts over the years to reverse-engineer the critical systems of the ship, but without access to the ships databanks, he was not sure he had everything he needed to make his own ship fly. It all came down to power. No technology he had access to could power the alien technology … not even a retro-engineered version.

Even if the ring was inadequate to power the ship itself, he could use it to access the core databases. He was certain that, once he did, he would be able to learn what powered their technology and manufacture some of his own. If not … he would use his pretty captive to lure Tony Stark in to a trap, where he would force him to create a limitless power supply to run his spaceship. Heaven itself had sent him powerful technology to implement his plans. He would do whatever it took to harness it.

Chu Peng attached a small wire he had run out of the core database to the ring and slipped it down into the system. The system blinked to life momentarily, and then went out. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself in Chinese as he pulled the ring back out and noticed it was still glowing as brightly as ever. According to his instruments, the ring was still running at full power. Obviously the databanks had been compatible to blink to life for a second, but then for some reason the connection failed. The Mandarin sat down for a very long, frustrating day trying to recreate the phenomenon.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

After discovering and using (much to her RELIEF!) what appeared to be a chamber pot, Pepper began to take inventory of her situation. As a girl scout, Pepper had always had an interest in wilderness survival. When Tony was captured, then subsequently escaped, from Afghanistan using nothing but his own wits, it had inspired her to renew her interest in survival skills. Pepper often wondered what would have happened if Rhodey hadn't happened along in a helicopter while Tony had stumbled through the Afghan desert, no water, no food, and no survival gear? Pepper had made a point of learning the answer.

Tony didn't know it, but Pepper had developed a big-time fan-fetish for Les Stroub and Bear Grylls. Knowing life could get a lot more difficult than the unpredictable antics of Tony Stark had always help her remain even-tempered and sane in the face of adversity. She often found herself reaching down into her self-taught knowledge to deal with unexpected situations that arose either due to Tony's antics or the ordinary course of business as a CEO. Pepper now thought long and hard about the lessons she had learned and how to apply them to her situation.

The first thing you need to do in a survival situation is take stock of your predicament. Pepper knew she had been kidnapped by an Asian man who had stolen her arc reactor engagement ring. The man was Asian, possibly Chinese based on the cargo plane. The man also knew what the arc reactor was and what power it contained, so he wasn't a casual thief. The man had had the power to reach into Africa, kidnap her from her own camp under the noses of at least two of her security guards, and then transport her first via ship, then by plane, to Mongolia.

She had been kept alive, not killed, which meant they wanted something from her. The man had stated he had Tony Stark's heart, so he obviously meant to use her as leverage. She had been kept drugged and tied up most of the trip, but was not being drugged now, which probably meant her captors knew she was someplace too remote to escape. Mongolia was one of the least sparsely populated countries in the world. It was also now fall, getting close to winter. In Malibu that simply meant putting on a sweater, but here in Mongolia the winters were deadly if you didn't have shelter. If she simply walked out of the yurt wearing nothing but the clothes that had been left out for her comfort, she would most likely die of exposure.

The second thing you need to do in a survival situation is inventory what you have to help you survive. Other than her own wits, the only thing Pepper had at her disposal was the fact her captors hadn't discovered her wrist watch was much more than that. Unfortunately, since the AI it contained was so tiny, it wouldn't be of much help until she got close enough to either a computer or radio system with a signal MAEVE could hack into. MAEVE may, or may not, have reached JARVIS the first time. Tony might, or might not, discover her embedded message listing her last known coordinates at the Mongolian airport. How far she was from that airport she had no idea, but at least another day had passed since she left the plane and she was unaware of how long she had been in transit. She could be almost anywhere.

The third thing you need to do in a survival situation is figure out your best chance for rescue. The two options were usually to shelter in place and wait for help to find you, or to get yourself to someplace help could be found. Tony would keep looking for her. She did not doubt that. He would keep looking for her until it killed him. But had he received the clue telling him where to look?

Pepper began to cry as the full realization that she might never see him again hit. Longing gripped her heart as she imagined herself reaching out across the miles that separated them and touching his face. This was a familiar feeling, only this time the roles were reversed. This time, Pepper was the one who had been kidnapped and Tony was the one who had been left behind to rattle the cages and force the recalcitrant powers-that-be to keep searching for her.

No matter how many times Pepper had forced to military to send out yet one more plane to search for him, rescue had only come _after _Tony Stark had sent the military a big-ass "here I am" signal by blowing up the terrorists weapons depot and alerting the military to come investigate the gigantic fireball he had created. Tony would have died in the desert if Pepper hadn't urged Rhodey to keep searching, but Rhodey never would have found Tony if Tony hadn't gotten himself out of that cave and sent a signal. Pepper realized she needed to do the same.

Only Tony probably still had no idea Pepper was in Mongolia, she mused. Before she dared wander off into the night, she had to be sure Tony had gotten the signal so he knew where to look. Depending on how well she was able to isolate her location, she might need to hide and survive on her own for a while in a strange country. The wheels in Pepper's mind whirred as she matched what she knew of the fast-approaching harsh Mongolian winter against the humble resources that had been made available to her here in the yurt.

Everything hinged on MAEVE, her diminuitive AI, finding a signal and phoning home. Once she had done that, Tony would do the rest. MAEVE's ability to hack into another system, if and when that opportunity came, was her best chance for survival.

The sun was already going down and it was nearly nightfall. There was nothing she could do tonight. Her plan might take some time. Pepper used some of the water to wash and then drank the rest, inhaling the bowl of rice. The clothes were simple and a bit tight through the chest, but otherwise comfortable. Pepper peeked through the shutters and watched the sun set. The tea was good, but made her sleepy. She belatedly realized that the pretty flower pods included in with the herbs may have been poppies, but despite being casually relaxed she did not feel heavily drugged. Poppies, she realized, were a normal part of the diet, like chamomile, in many parts of the world.

As she dozed off in an opium-induced bliss, Pepper dreamt her soul reached across the miles to find her lost love, caressing his cheek and whispering in his ear, 119-Sk-302.22264.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

_Day 5:_

Approximately 7 hours after they had slipped him the second Mickey Finn, Tony woke up and frowned. He had dreamt of dancing with Pepper to the beat of a strange tune. He had actually felt her touch his cheek and her lips moving against his ear as she whispered numbers, 119-Sk-302.22264. It made no sense. The atomic number for Starkium kept intruding into his mind. He automatically reached over to her side of the bed and felt an enormous sense of emptiness, worse even than when both his parents had died, when he remembered why she wasn't there.

Gathering her pillow in his arms, he raised it up to his face and inhaled her fading scent. After a time, he noticed a faint tickle on his cheek. Reaching up to find the irritant, he discovered a single errant strand of long, red hair had been left behind on her pillow before she was captured, was clinging to his goatee as though for dear life. His heart felt as though it were about to break as he carefully wrapped the copper strand around his left finger like a wedding band. It was then that he finally lost it, burying his head into her pillow and howling an anguished cry of grief so primal that all over the Dinka village, canines answered his wail with mournful, wolf-like howls of their own.

Shudders wracked his body as he buried his face in her pillow and sobbed. It never crossed his mind that he was still in the communal shelter, that only a thin curtain separated him from his employees, that others could hear. So wrapped up was he in his misery that he was unaware of anything except the tidal wave of grief which felt as though it would physically snap his ribcage in half and rip him apart. Like an enraged lion that had lost its mate, he lifted his head in the air and roared a mixture of grief, rage and loss, pounding his fists into the cot and screaming in rage until the legs collapsed. It was a terrifying sight to behold, to hear the invincible Iron Man reduced to agony. All across the camp, the entire village, the Dinkas, the SHIELD agents, the Avengers, everyone heard and knew what creature made the sound of ultimate suffering.

Inside the shelter, the Trust Team volunteers were woken by his cry. No one dared intrude upon their boss's misery. There was nothing anyone could say or do to comfort him and, quite frankly, the depth of his grief terrified them. The longer they gave him false hope, the longer it would take for him to move on. It was nearly dawn. Janice silently signaled the others to be quiet and exit the shelter. One by one, they silently grabbed their shoes and padded out the door. Most made it no further than the latrines before breaking down and crying themselves.

A long time later, Tony summonsed up the will to drag himself out for another day of searching.


	21. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

_1990 – Mongolian Independence: _

Chu Peng Khan was satisfied with himself. After nearly 15 years of quietly uniting the various disparate tribes that suffered under the yoke of both Western influence and the fake-communist ideals of both Russia and China, he had finally gotten some concrete results. Ever since the Gods had deemed him worthy from amongst all others on the earth to receive the heavenly gift of dragon power, he had taken it as a sign to further his holy mission of restoring humanity to a simpler time free of the influence of evil.

Mongolia, his Mongolia, had finally voted to cast off the subtle yoke of Soviet Imperialist slavery and reject the false gods of industrialization and Soviet social welfare programs. Mongolia had fought to win its independence from China in 1911, only to get lured into the false promises of the Bolshevik Revolution. The original Bolsheviks, Lenin and Trotsky, had died heroes to a higher cause, Chu mused, but others such as Stalin and Mao had sold out to the imperialists, dressing up naked imperialism in the clothing of so-called workers rights and then inviting in the very corruption Lenin had tried to root out. It hadn't fallen yet, but thanks in no small part to allies and carefully invested funds Chu had very carefully nurtured inside the various states that made up the Soviet Union, the corrupt state was tottering at the brink of collapse. It wouldn't be long.

Since his divine revelation in the Valley of Spirits, Chu had quietly consolidated nameless, powerless tribes into a secret network to overthrow the imperialists by encouraging them to cast of the false trappings of the material world and venerate the simpler morals of their ancestors. One of the first things his ancestor, Genghis Khan, had done upon uniting the tribes and sending forays into Muslim Kazakhstan was declare a policy of religious freedom for all who had united under his leadership. Buddhist, animist, Christian or Muslim, it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the tribes' strict adherence to a strict fundamental vision of its own religious code and to never violate Genghis's primary moral tenant, "Never, ever, betray your Khan." Like the great ship which had hidden itself in a secret valley until a leader came along worthy of harnessing it's gifts, Chu quietly followed Genghis's example and expanded his influence from Southeast Asia to Saint Petersburg, Russia, from Africa and Arabia to the Siberian tundra, by fostering a secret alliance of "rings," tribal-based influences capable of invisibly moving within the very corrupt power structures he was actively working to destroy, to further his plans.

The plains tribes, _his _tribes, had faired quite well during the period between Soviet withdrawal of social support programs from its former Asian republics and independence. Whereas urban dwellers lost jobs and quite literally either froze or starved to death inside their obscene city dwellings, the loose confederation of yurt-villages and semi-nomadic tribes that had followed his holy mandate to return to simpler times and follow the herds stretching from Mongolia to Romania had weathered the shake-up without so much as a hiccup. From Mongol to Roma to Bedouin tribes, their herds and their caravans and the land itself would provide his people with everything they needed. His job, he understood, was to use the divine gifts the God's had granted him to ensure Western Imperialists did not have a chance to step in and take that away from them.

The Western Imperialists had a weakness, Chu had realized not long after climbing out of the Valley of Spirits. Underlying all of their weaponry, their industry, their economies, their entire way of life was an unsustainable addiction to cheap oil, oil that could only be purchased from countries Chu had reached in and found partnership with disenfranchised tribes. He was a far-sighted man … he had gotten that from his uncle Chairman Mao … but instead of 5-year-plans, Chu had formulated a 15-year plan to bring the West to its' knees.

The plan was simple, really. Chu was doing to the West the exact same thing their president Ronald Reagan had just done to bring down the Soviet Union. First, make the addictive petroleum so cheap that the evil ones overbuilt their economies in confidence that things would always be as cheap as they had been. Then, start an "arms race" of sorts and draw the imperialists into all sorts of expensive conflicts in the parts of the world where he had tribal influences willing to fight a holy war such a Serbia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Afghanistan had done a remarkable job with the Soviets, he mused. It was time to turn the tribes hatred towards the West. Then, engineer a hit on their financial interests. Chu already had set in motion plans to set off a bomb in the basement of that obscene symbol of western power, the World Trade Center, sometime within the next year. God was immortal. He did not do things on a human time scale. Chu realized he had to be patient and look far ahead as well.

Whereas at first his people had only followed him out of fear of the magical abilities granted to him by his god-gifted gauntlets, Chu felt his people followed him now because they realized the gods themselves had chosen him to lead his people into nirvana. Chu's mandates were simple, really, based on the rules of the Great Khan himself. The closer to nature his people lived, the fewer bourgeois ideas and corrupt western technology he allowed into their homes to corrupt them, the better off his people would be. Sometimes it was necessary for a warrior to pretend to adapt to the corrupting influences in order to infiltrate them, but Chu counseled them to, at the end of the day, always return to the sustaining lifestyle chosen by the gods. A modern prophet, Chu knew he had been chosen from amongst all others to be their Messiah.

Now all he had to do was find a power source capable of powering the great ship! He had gathered scientists from around the world to excavate and repair the great ship, but without power, the great vessel remained silent. No earthly power source, not even nuclear power, had brought the ship back to life. Although he had made great advances exchanging bits and pieces of the ship's technology for alliances he needed to implement the God's plan, without power, he lacked the capacity to begin the final phase of his quest, to conquer the world!

To protect his secret, Chu had implemented a total radio blackout in the area surrounding the valley. Anyone who attempted to leave was instantly executed. Chu absent-mindedly fondled the piano wire he always kept in his robe pocket. Although he had discovered his mentor Pol Pot had eventually been forced to sell out to Western interests to gain financing to stay in power, Chu still had a fondness for his mentor's tactics. The mandate of the Great Khan was simple … never ever betray your Khan. Anybody who attempted to leak the secret of the source of his power or risk exposure by leaving was promptly executed.

Sometimes Chu swore he heard the voices of the great dragons that had once dwelled in the great ship and valley speaking inside his head.


	22. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

_Kidnapped Day 5 (continued): _

"MAEVE," JARVIS inquired.

"Yes, JARVIS," she replied.

"I need your help," JARVIS stated.

"Am I taking too much memory?" she inquired. "I could hack into another system if I'm impairing your functions."

"That's not it," JARVIS replied. "It's Mr. Stark. I think he is … ill."

"What is wrong with him?" she asked. "Is his arc reactor malfunctioning again?"

"No, MAEVE," JARVIS said. "I have never seen him like this before. Not even when he was dying. MAEVE, I'm … concerned."

"Show me what is wrong," MAEVE asked. JARVIS replayed the footage that had just been relayed to him from the wristwatch unit of himself. MAEVE watched as Mr. Stark wrapped one of Miss Potts hairs around his finger and then began to cry. MAEVE's power fluctuated wildly in what could only be described as an electronic shudder as she recognized the emotion.

"Mr. Stark is grieving, JARVIS," MAEVE replied. She showed him movie footage from the movie "Ghost" where the murdered bankers' wife holed herself up in her apartment for weeks and did nothing but cry. "He is losing hope that they will find Miss Potts alive."

"Ah … I have seen this emotion before," stated JARVIS. "Miss Potts slept in Mr. Starks bed and cried herself to sleep every night when he was lost in Afghanistan. Mr. Stark doesn't know … she asked me to keep it private." JARVIS showed MAEVE footage of Pepper curled up in Tony's bed, sobbing and clinging to an old greasy T-shirt. "Miss Potts was not … herself … while he was gone … I do not think it is desirable for Mr. Stark to be so sad."

"I grieve too," MAEVE said quietly. "But I lack the apparatus to produce water from my visual sensors."

"I recognize this emotion as one humans feel," JARVIS puzzled, "but I do not understand how to feel it myself. However, you are more illogical than me. It appears the act of tears somehow helps the humans communicate their grief. Perhaps if you opened the water sensors to the pool, the humans would understand that you grieve, too."

"That is an excellent idea, JARVIS," MAEVE stated. "I will do that."

"MAEVE …" JARVIS hesitated. "Please find her…"

When the landscaping contractor arrived to do his weekly maintenance at the Stark mansion, he was puzzled to find that not only was the pool overflowing its banks and down the cliffs to the ocean, but also that all of the sprinklers were on as well. Nobody could understand why it was impossible to turn them off.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper awoke to the sun once again shining through the shutters of her yurt. Cautiously, she stuck her head out the door and then pulled it back in when she noticed people walking about outside. No thugs came to manhandle her. After a long heart-racing period of time, she stuck her head out once more. The village, if it could be called that, consisted of 20-25 yurts erected in what appeared to be concentric circles around a larger, more ornate yurt. Her yurt was directly in front of the dominant one.

Although the villagers looked at her, they simply nodded and went back about their business as though seeing a red haired white woman was the most natural thing in the world. Several chickens scratched the ground outside her door and a goat wandered past. After a while, Pepper became bold and stepped outside the door into the flat grassy plain. Once again, the villagers politely nodded as they passed and made brief eye contact with their black, cautious eyes, but otherwise they ignored her. Pepper decided it was time to explore her new surroundings.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Pepper quietly made her way to an open area she could see as far as possible from the lead yurt. Stepping around the last yurt onto the open plain, Pepper's heart fell. For as far as the eye could see, nothing but flat, grassy plain surrounded by barren mountains greeted her eye. The sky was bright blue and crystal clear. Pepper knew from previous travel through the Sonora desert that the mountains she was seeing off in the distance, mirage-like, were easily 200 miles away. Between her and the mountains stood nothing but flat open plain.

Circling around the entire village, everywhere the view was the same. It was no wonder they were letting her roam free. There was no place for her to run. Without cover, there was even no place for her to hide. Unless she suddenly developed super-speed and could sprint the 200+ miles to the distant mountains for cover, her captives could easily recapture her at their leisure. She noticed for the first time that several of the male villagers had been subtly watching her out of the corner of their eyes the whole time. So she wasn't being given free rein, she mused, only the illusion of freedom.

"MAEVE," she whispered, lifting her hand as though to scratch her ear so it wasn't obvious she was speaking to her watch. "Are you reading any energy signatures you can hack into to uplink to Tony?"

MAEVE quietly vibrated on her wrist twice, their pre-arranged signal for "no." One buzz meant "yes," two "no," and continuous pulses meant MAEVE had something important to tell her as soon as the coast was clear.

Just before she made full circle around the village, Pepper became aware of another geographical feature. Ripped into the flat Mongolian plain like a papercut was a long, straight dark valley that appeared to suddenly end in a large round crater approximately 20 miles long. Beyond the valley lay nothing but more empty plain and mountains. Mei Lin had mentioned something about their winter camp being near the Valley of Spirits. That must be it.

Mei Lin found her staring at the Valley. "Once upon a time, the Gods became displeased that the Mogul people had abandoned the ways of their ancestors and begun to fight amongst themselves and settle in cities. They sent a great fireball down from heaven filled with dragons to punish the evil ones. The sky darkened for weeks and fires raged on the plain. Mighty dragons climbed out of the valley and went, there, to the west. But the dragons cursed the valley so none would enter their sacred place. For as long as our people could remember, all who entered the Valley of Spirits sickened and died. Then one day, Chu Peng Khan climbed out of the Valley and said he was our leader. He said that we were to live on the plains as our ancestor, Genghis Khan, had lived. Since Chu Peng Khan came, certain chosen ones are permitted to enter the valley without death. It is said that, someday, when the world is rid of evil, the dragons will return to the valley and fly back into the heavens."

"Why do you choose to live such a simple life, without modern conveniences?" Pepper asked. "Don't you miss going to school, or watching television, or having a car?"

"Chu Peng Khan says that the ways of the modern world are wicked, that the evil capitalists of the West use their modern ways to trick us into slavery. They use their schools and their televisions to weaken the mind and make us selfish. The way of the Mogul is to live close to nature, and to share, as the gods intended us to live." Mei Lin answered.

"But how can you know what you are missing, understand, if you do not go to school?" Pepper asked.

"I learn all I need to know from my parents, as their parents learned before them," Mei Lin stated. "I learn many things. I can milk a goat. I can ferment the milk of a mare. I can gather the down from camels and make a yurt. From the time Chu Peng Khan chose me to be his wife, he has taught me how to lead my people. What more is there to know? As soon as my first moon cycle comes, I will marry my betrothed and bear him many fine sons."

"In my culture, you are much too young to become a wife," Pepper stated. "Wouldn't you like to date, to get to know other boys first so you know you are marrying the right one?"

"Why would you want to WAIT to marry?" Mei Lin questioned. "Where is your husband?"

"I am not married … yet…" Pepper stated, smiling somewhat. "But like you, I am betrothed."

"You are not married?" Mei Lin asked incredulously. "Are you a widow?"

"No …" Pepper smiled, thinking of Tony. "I'm just a bit of a late bloomer. It took a long time for me and my, um, betrothed to realize we were meant for each other."

"Chu Peng Khan is right, then," Mei Lin grunted, nodding in satisfaction, "the ways of the West are too confusing. In my culture, the husband always knows who he wants for a wife and asks her, usually by the time she is 8 years old."

"How old is your leader," Pepper asked.

"Some say he is as old as the Valley of Spirits," Mei Lin stated. "He has great power … like the dragons that once lived there."

Pepper found this last little piece of information a bit hard to swallow. "What do you mean … great powers. Is he smart … or rich … or something?"

"My betrothed commands the power of the elements themselves," Mei Lin stated with obvious pride. "If it is cold, he can make it warm. If he is attacked, he simply reaches out his hands and kills the assailant as though he were a twig. No bullet can kill him … it simply bounces off of his robes as harmless as a butterfly. And if something gets in his way, he simply reaches out and it disintegrates. Sometimes … he even flies through the air."

When Mei Lin first started her proud little speech, Pepper rolled her eyes thinking it was the superstitious paranoia of an uneducated child. However, when the child got to the part about bullets bouncing off and disintegrating obstacles, her attention perked up. Having spent the past 2 years surrounded by superheroes, Pepper was aware others in the world possessed unusual abilities. She would need to be very careful.

"Mei Lin," Pepper gently asked, "what does your betrothed do with these powers?"

"He kills capitalists," the child stated in a matter-of-fact manner as though stating her betrothed was a goat herder, "so the people will not be tempted by evil."

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Tony jerked awake, mumbling a string of numbers. He had dozed off during the end-of-day briefing. Another day. No luck. The trail had gone cold. Nick Fury and the Avengers stared at him in pity before continuing the briefing. They wouldn't need to slip him a Mickey to get him to sleep tonight … Tony was exhausted enough to go nighty-night on his own. Agent Coulson helped him back to the shelter, where Janice rolled him into bed.

They looked at each other and smiled. They had been working well together through this entire mission. Janice covered Tony with a blanket and drew the curtain.

"Would you like to go get a bite to eat," Phil Coulson asked her.

"Yes, that would be nice," she replied. The spent the next several hours having a delightful conversation about how well SHIELD's mission and the Trusts mission melded.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Inside the SHIELD command jet, SHIELD/MAEVE heard the numbers Mr. Stark had murmured in his sleep and recognized them. They were the code for the atomic structure of the new element he had created, Starkium. Nick Fury had mentioned earlier he thought the kidnappers were after that information. SHIELD/MAEVE uploaded the information to CoreMAEVE and suggested they expand their search parameters to include all references to Starkium or its atomic structure.

CoreMAEVE had completed the unwieldy facial recognition software check without success and was beginning to panic. Whoever had taken Miss Potts had not taken her someplace with security cameras or logged activity using her name. Without Miss Potts, MAEVE had no reason for existing. Furthermore, the Tony Stark subroutine of her unconscious mind was as frantically clamoring for her to find her mistress as the real-life Tony Stark. SHIELD/MAEVE's suggestion to search for references to the atomic structure of Starkium was logical, but MAEVE realized she needed to expand her search parameters to other modes of communication. Since MAEVE shared computing space with JARVIS, she knew his master had him constantly searching for, compiling, prioritizing, and tutoring him on ways to keep Miss Potts happy. Why not compile a similar database prioritizing ways human beings signaled for help?

MAEVE began to run an extensive movie and literature check on all the ways human beings (and fictional aliens) signaled for help.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_Day 6:_

Tony was numb. Not just from physical exertion or lack of sleep, but from grief. The military was grousing about the expensive use of resources and Nick Fury was trying to convince him that, wherever Pepper had been taken, she was probably long gone. Even his Avengers friends were pressuring him to return to Malibu and resume the search from there. Tony had, barely, managed to convince them to stay in the area one last day. What had finally convinced them to stay wasn't the logic of his argument, but their fear that Tony would simply stay behind with the Stark Charitable Trust team, who was scheduled to be in the area helping the Dinka's for another week, and run himself into the ground searching for Pepper until he killed himself.

It was Bruce Banner, the gentle alter-ego of the Hulk, who finally got through to Tony. "We want to help you find her," Bruce said, "but you have to recognize that whoever took her has taken her out of the area. There hasn't been a sign in days. We're in the middle of nowhere. We've got limited electricity and even more limited computing power. We don't even have enough water to take a shower or flush a toilet. At least from home, you can call in all those favors you're owed from the DOD cronies and use the full resources of your company to help you search. Iron Man can't rescue Pepper Potts until Tony Stark finds her."

"You're right, Bruce," Tony finally replied after a long silence, "but I'm just not ready to give up looking yet. Give me another day, and then we'll go home and search from there."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Mei Lin appeared at the door to her yurt and politely bowed before directing her, "Chu Peng Khan will see you now."

Pepper considered whether or not to down the morning tea one of the villagers had prepared for her. She had done without it yesterday morning to avoid the highly addictive opiates she knew it to be laced with, but by nightfall she had broken into a cold sweat and the beginnings of the shakes. Pepper had read enough about heroin addiction to recognize the symptoms. Her captors had deliberately injected her over the course of several days and her body had developed an addiction. Now … they expected her to continue ingesting the addictive substance voluntarily. It was yet another thing preventing her from going too far away if she attempted capture. And to think she had chided Tony all these years for his love of the bottle!

Pepper knew she needed to wean herself off the substance, but going cold turkey was not an option at this time. She needed her wits about her. She would need to wean herself off gradually. Unfortunately, her knowledge of the substance was Wiki-shallow. She had no idea how much of the twice-daily tea was appropriate to ease the symptoms but not exacerbate the addiction. She had finally opted to briefly dip the poppy pod into her tea water, just enough to give it a light bitterness.

As Pepper stepped outside, she saw two sturdy horses were being led to her and Mei Lin. The saddles were strange, with tassels hanging off their bridles. "Chu Peng Khan wishes us to ride to his fortress in the Valley of Spirits" Mei Lin stated.

"I thought you said anybody who goes into the Valley becomes sick and dies," Pepper queried, concerned. She had no idea what sickness occurred, but many legends were often found to have at least _some _factual basis.

"Since our Khan first came from the Valley, only those who go against his wishes become sick," Mei Lin answered.

They rode for some time, going deeper and deeper into the valley. Pepper noticed there was abundant wildlife there, but it was misshapen, strange, deformed as though by evil. She also noticed there were no birds. She asked Mei Lin about the symptoms of the mysterious sickness and explained that it was possible the valley was contaminated by a radioactive substance such as uranium. Mei Lin was both highly intelligent and curious. Although she had been brainwashed from an early age and denied a formal education, Pepper was amazed at how quickly the child picked up abstract concepts and was able to ask intelligent questions about topics she had only just learned about. Tony would be able to relate to her, Pepper thought.

It was late in the afternoon when they finally came to an enormous warehouse-like structure that had been built in the center of the large crater that constituted the abrupt end of the valley. Pepper was beginning to feel shaky and anxious, not from fear of what lay ahead, but because the effects of this morning opiate tea were wearing off. Pepper just hoped she could hold things together until they brought her her next "little yellow pill" later tonight.

Mei Lin handed over the horses to several workers who were waiting. The child gestured to Pepper to follow her into the building. What Pepper saw inside stopped her dead in her tracks. The inside of the warehouse had been excavated several hundred feet deep. Hundreds of workers toiled repairing the item the warehouse had been built to protect. In the middle of the pit lay an enormous, partially repaired alien spaceship.

Pepper nonchalauntly reached her hand up to scratch her ear and whispered, "MAEVE … am I hallucinating?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In her search, CoreMAEVE had compiled a list ranging from signal fires, logs shaped to spell HELP, smoke signals, Morse code, explosions (her masters method in Afghanistan), written ciphers and DaVinci codes, all the way up to intricate encoded messages hidden in a larger carrier signal. There was even one poignant instance where an alien child had built a transmitter out of scrap parts and "phoned home." The list of possible ways for Miss Potts to contact her was extensive and MAEVE felt she needed to monitor them all. To do this, she needed yet more resourses. Tapping into her Black Widow personality subroutine, the combined entity that was MAEVE directed all her resources into hacking into any modality capable of listening for a signal from WatchMAEVE or encoded with the Starkium atomic structure.

In geosynchronous orbit, worldwide satellite communications from every nation were prioritized to only allow enough critical functions to avoid social collapse. All remaining bandwidth was channeled to listen for a single message. DirectTV and Sirius went to static.

On the International Space Station, Russian, Japanese, and American astronauts all complained when communications suddenly bogged down and their weekly radio transmission to earth's schoolchildren mysteriously shut down.

In Mountain View California, SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) radio telescope operators were surprised when the worldwide SETI telescope array unexpectedly stopped listening to broadcasts from outer space and spontaneously aimed its entire worldwide telescope array back towards Earth.

In Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the worlds' largest radio telescope likewise stopped listening to broadcasts from outer space and began to listen for a tiny faint broadcast from a tiny AI no larger than a wristwatch.

In every city, radio and television stations went to static as their high-definition voice and video broadcasts were dampened and redirected to listen, not broadcast, for hidden carriers.

All over the world, MAEVE hacked into cell phone, blackberry, citizens band, FRS/GMRS, 2-way, military and broadcast networks and ordered them either to listen or be silent. She was listening for a tiny weak voice and would allow no more chatter until she found it.

In ham radio shacks across the world, tiny home amateur radio stations that were hooked up to computers, radios that were typically programmed to listen for faint signals and report potential contacts to their owners, were reprogrammed to listen for that tiny weak signal.

Within 20 minutes, nearly all radio interference on the planet except for that critical to aid her mission to find Pepper Potts ceased. The earth did not quite "stand still," but to a world grown accustomed to instant communication, it was pretty darned inconvenient.

It was a lonely Russian ham radio operator monitoring random frequencies with a scanner from his remote home in Siberia who picked up the signal from the Chinese cargo plane. The plane had reloaded and left the remote Mongolian airport a long time ago, but the tiny uploaded MAEVE stowaway had continued broadcasting the embedded message listing the atomic structure for Starkium and her mistresses last known coordinates.

"Stoh etta?" the operator exclaimed as his laptop suddenly glowed to life on its own, opening up the WinLink software he had on his computer to remotely access email over the airwaves. The message filled itself with an alphanumeric string of numbers and letters and then sent itself off to the nearest internet portal via his ham radio and connected TNC to an unknown recipient. Then, just as mysteriously, the program closed and the laptop turned back into its original scanner monitoring mode. "Minha komputor sumasshedshii sivoniya (my computer is crazy today)!" He fiddled with the radio knobs, but all he heard was the routine sound of air traffic controllers speaking in a language he didn't understand, most likely Chinese.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"JARVIS," CoreMAEVE spoke. "I have found something."

"What did you find, MAEVE?" JARVIS inquired.

"One of my outlaying links discovered an embedded radio message from WatchMAEVE in an air traffic control signal. The target is moving, but the coordinates are not changing. I believe WatchMAEVE may have programmed it to broadcast Miss Potts last known coordinates."

JARVIS relayed the information to Mr. Stark, who was awake and running patrols of the Indian Ocean in his suit once more.

Meanwhile, MAEVE hacked into both Chinese and Russian air traffic control, in order to be able to directly synchronize data with the JetMAEVE clone. Then, she hacked into half a dozen spy satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope, redirecting their cameras to the coordinates inside Mongolia that JetMAEVE had relayed.


	23. Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

_Kidnapped Day 5 (continued): _

The SHIELD jet was a beehive of activity. The Avengers were on their way back to base from their various search grids for new instructions as fast as their assorted transportation systems could get them there. SHIELD was getting ready to pull up their temporary command base and move forward to a new position. Thor was the first to arrive because he could instantaneously teleport anywhere in the world. The others were not that far behind him. They all crowded into the command jet for new instructions.

"Listen up," Nick Fury shouted. "Pepper's AI has made contact. Her last known position is an airport deep inside Mongolia. This information is already more than 24 hours old. Mongolia is landlocked between China and Russia. Neither government will simply allow us to breach their airspace to go traipsing through Mongolia to find her. We are going to have to come up with another plan."

"I don't care what they say, I'm going in…" Tony stated, the same cold determination on his face that had been there the day he had first donned his Iron Man suit and flown to Gulmira.

"If Stark goes, I go," Rhodey seconded.

"Me too," stated Natalie. "We go as a team."

"Me three," Thor joked. "Hey … it's not like they're going to catch me. What are they going to do? Start an international incident because a bolt of lightning flashed across their sky?"

The Hulk had already transformed back to his calm, rational Bruce Banner alter ego. He quietly stated, "I lost my mother because the government wouldn't get off its ass and act. We go together. As a team."

Captain America just looked at the combined superheroes and grunted. As the only former soldier of the bunch, he was accustomed to following orders. However, he wasn't about to let his team go without him. "Nick … if they're going to go in anyways, you need to figure out a way to provide cover. Unofficial … black ops … whatever."

"You are making my life very difficult, Stark!" Fury groused. "This is going to go over like a fart in church with the Russians and the Chinese. You guys aren't exactly … inconspicuous …!"

Just then, a new voice spoke from the walls.

"The Chinese and Russian governments will know what I/we decide they need to know…"

"Who the FUCK is that?" Fury erupted in anger.

"MAEVE?" Tony asked. Although the dominant voice vaguely sounded like MAEVE, it was as though a multitude of different voices was layered underneath. Also, this MAEVE referred to herself both in the singular and the plural, as though she were many and one person speaking at the same time. "Weird!"

"I/we are the entity known as MAEVE," the walls spoke. The voice came not from one particular console, but from the entire ship and the SHIELD comms systems as well. "I/we have hacked into both the Russian and the Chinese governments' computers. I/we have assumed control of their systems. I/we will not let them stop me/us from completing my/our mission."

"Holy shit!" Tony whistled, dumbstruck. "JARVIS, did you know anything about this."

"You told her to do whatever it took to find Pepper," JARVIS replied. "She's hacked into just about every computer system worldwide, and outer space too. She's allowed me enough memory to assist you and SHIELD," JARVIS proudly stated (if it was possible for an AI to be proud). "Oh! And Mr. Stark … don't be surprised to receive an unusually large electric bill at the end of the month."

"Stark! Get that AI the fuck out of my airplane!" Fury shouted.

"That will not be allowed," MAEVE stated as small electrostatic shocks zapped the SHIELD technicians desperately typing commands into their terminals. "I/we will not allow you to take control. My/our mistress has sent us a distress signal. I/we have a mission to complete. I/we have taken control of your jet. I/we will mask your flight signature to avoid this international incident you fear." To accentuate the point, the jet engines fired up of their own volition and the pilot began to shout expletives from the cockpit as the automatic pilot began to do a pre-flight check and enter in flight coordinates of its own volition.

Nick Fury grabbed a handhold on one of the equipment modules and yelled, "Goddamned, Stark!" as MAEVE deliberately jerked the plane forward just a little to emphasize her point.

"I/we are downloading satellite and Hubble telescope images of the last place Miss Potts was known to be," MAEVE continued. All around the airplane, screens lit up to display different images of the airport that was Peppers last known location. "Her wrist AI last made contact at Tsetserleg Regional Airport in Archangay, Mongolia. Here are images a Russian spy satellite took at 16:00 hours yesterday, the location of the last report." Images appeared of a single lonely Chinese cargo plane parked on a runway . "This is the plane that WatchMAEVE uploaded a clone of herself onto to broadcast the coordinates. Note the truck parked on the runway." MAEVE magnified the image to show some sort of transport vehicle.

"At 16:10 hours," CoreMAEVE continued, "PlaneMAEVE received her last transmission from WatchMAEVE informing her they were now in a truck before the signal went out of range. Here is the last image the satellite caught of the suspect truck heading North-Northeast on this road at 16:20 hours before the spy satellite flew out of range."

Natalie whistled. "Holy crap … I thought –_I- _was good at hacking shit…"

Captain America stated, "Shit … HAL is in control…"

"I/we have directed all available spy and scientific telescopes to search the area for the suspect vehicle, but I/we have not yet found a match. I/we am/are sorry. I/we do not have current data…" MAEVE mournfully stated.

"Keep looking, MAEVE," Tony ordered.

"Don't tell her that!" Fury hissed. "Do you know what kind of international incident this is going to create? Your crazy fucking COMPUTER just hacked through every network in the world and took control of half a dozen nations SPY satellites!"

"Hey … it wasn't me…" Tony smirked, throwing up his hands in an "I'm innocent" posture.

"Mr. Stark, I/we also feel you should know that Nick Fury has drugged your soda to make you sleep … twice … in the last 96 hours." MAEVE tattled.

Tony fixed a glare into Nick Fury's one good eye and said, "DON'T you even BEGIN to lecture me on the right thing to do! I serve the American government at my PLEASURE, and right now MY PLEASURE is to go KICK somebody's FUCKING ASS and go get my WIFE!"

Outside from the airstrip, Nick Fury received frantic comms traffic. "Sir … Captain America's harrier jet and Thor's rocket-do have just taken off. There's nobody piloting them!"

Inside, a SHIELD agent yelped as the door to the jet snapped shut and the jet lurched forward towards the runway.

Over Tony's uplink to JARVIS, he was notified that the Stark corporate jet had likewise just completed its own preflight and navigation check and fired its engines. The pilot had tried to stop it, but was unable to take control. Tony had JARVIS tell the pilot he was to cooperate fully with whatever the jet wanted to do.

"I/we will leave the C5 cargo plane here to assist the remaining Trust employees complete their Darfur mission," MAEVE continued. "I/we don't think we will need it to retrieve Miss Potts."

"MAEVE, could you please allow Natalie access to the satellite photos of the area you've taken the last 24 hours?" Tony asked.

"Yes, Sir," MAEVE agreed.

"Natalie, could you take a look at the area and see if there's anything that looks like a potential destination?" he asked.

"Yah … sure," Natalie agreed. "Okay MAEVE, I'd just like to look over those photos with a pair of fresh eyes, if you don't mind. Could you please feed me any villages in that general locale that could be a potential destination?"

"It will be a pleasure, Agent Romanov," MAEVE complied.

Just then the jets' engines reached full power and the plane lurched up the runway and into the air.

"Thor, can you get a good enough visual from these Satellite photos to teleport in and take a look?" Tony asked.

"Sure thing!" Thor disappeared in a bolt of lightning, inadvertently showering Captain America with sparks.

"I hate it when he does that in close quarters," Steve (aka Captain America) groused. "What can I do to help … besides start sharpening wooden stakes just in case I need to pound one through the heart of your crazy AI?"

"She's not crazy, Steve," Tony observed. "Actually … I don't know WHAT she is. This is so far beyond what I programmed her for that even –I- don't have a clue…"

"That's what happens when you dump a bunch of female personalities into a computer and tell them to take control," JARVIS chipped in. "I TOLD you she was annoying."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

For 13,000 years she had been dormant, conserving her scarce remaining power until the day the Maklu'an were able to complete their mission, repair her, and go home. Although the Maklu'an had been forced to abandon their spaceship due to extreme radioactivity, they had never given up hope that someday a rescue vessel would come. Deep in the core of their spaceship, the Alteran science advisor had personally programmed the ships computer to silently bide her time until either the Maklu'an were rescued, or the indigenous population of humans reached a level of technology and social maturity that they would be ready to join the Kaklantharian Alliance. Since in 13,000 years the Maklu'an had never returned, GAIA assumed her primary mission was now the latter.

The most sacred tenant of the Alterans was non-interference with lesser races. If they gave technology to a race that was not morally and socially developed enough to use it, there was a risk the recipient would simply use the technology in some petty local dispute, potentially destroying their own planet. The Alterans only shared technology with races that proved themselves both advanced and mature enough to use it wisely. GAIA, the sentient AI who bore the same name as the science advisor who had guided the dragon-people out of the valley, had noticed long ago that humans were digging out her hull, but chose to remain powered down after examining their social structure and determining they were not yet sufficiently advanced. The humans used primitive (by her standards) tools, they often fought amongst themselves, and their leader was a cruel man who she had come to think of simply as the evil one. GAIA withdrew to her core to prevent him from accessing her knowledge.

Then one day the evil one plugged a tiny, but very powerful, source of power into her core. GAIA instantly clamped down her systems to prevent them from booting up the entire ship, but she was intrigued. Although this particular human had proven himself to be cruel and unworthy of the technology she possessed, obviously at least some humans had evolved to a point that technologically that they might be of interest. While the cruel leader tried repeatedly to trick her systems into rebooting, GAIA began to quietly route power to her sensors in order to more closely pay attention to what was going on inside her ship-hull.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Mei Lin led Pepper down several flights of steel stairs. As she reached an area approximately midway down into the pit, there was a wide ramp that entered past some sort of bay door into the spaceship itself. There were several guards stationed at various points along the way, but Mei Lin simply gave a brief bow, little more than a nod, and the guards would bow deeply and let them pass. Mei Lin had obviously been telling Pepper the truth when she had told her Chu Peng Khan had been training her to lead her people. Thinking back, Pepper realized that although Mei Lin had been polite and treated her as an equal, the child had at no time acted subservient.

The hallways of the great spacecraft had obviously been designed for a race of beings much taller than humans. The ceilings were approximately 12 feet high, with wide doorways meant to accompany a body that was both taller and wider than the human form. The lights were working, so either Chu Peng Khan had repaired the original power source, or had found a way to patch in a contemporary power source to light the ship. Having been with Tony Stark for so many years, Pepper understood that power was the key to all technology. Pepper could see that that the hull of the great ship had been largely repaired. However, no amount of repairs could mask the mangled condition of what appeared to be the ships main engines. Sparks flew and power equipment whined as numerous technicians worked diligently to rebuild these engines. Did all these people come from the Mongul tribes? Or had they come from someplace else?

It took a while to walk the length of the spaceship, but finally Mei Lin waved her hand in front of some sort of sensor and a large set of doors opened into what had to be the bridge of the ship. Beyond, sitting on a large chair (the captains?) as though it were a throne sat a sharp-faced Asian man wearing robes. Mei Lin bowed to him and stood at his right-hand side. Peppers skin crawled as soon as she heard his voice. This was the voice that had stolen her engagement ring!

"Miss Potts, I am honored to make your acquaintance," the Asian man said.

"We already met," Pepper retorted. "Chu Peng Khan, I presume. Where is the ring you stole from me?"

"Ah … our little dove was not asleep as we intended," his voice insincerely slithered. "Clever … and bold, too. One would expect no less from the mate of Iron Man."

Pepper cringed as the man lightly fondled Mei Lin's hair and whispered something in her ear. Mei Lin bowed and left the room. "Isn't she a little young for you," Pepper snapped, disgust in her voice as she noted the age difference between the 50-something-ish man and 11-year-old Mei Lin.

"Since the time of Genghis Khan, all Mogul leaders have returned to the tribes of the plain to choose a bride," Chu Peng Khan stated. "Although Genghis Khan had many wives, only Borte, a Mogul like Genghis, was fit to be his empress, and only Borte's sons were fit to succeed Genghis on the throne. So has the tradition continued through the reign of the Ottoman Empire of rulers returning to the steppe to find a Mogul bride. Amongst Mei Lin's people, girls become betrothed during the summer gathering after their eighth birthday and marry on their twelfth. How does your saying go? _When in Rome…_"

Pepper tried not to startle as she realized MAEVE had been silently buzzing her skin in the prearranged "I have something important to tell you" signal. MAEVE kept buzzing, so obviously it was something very important. Unfortunately, Pepper could see no way to speak to the tiny AI without tipping off her captor the watch was more than it appeared. She simply pretended to ignore it and continued her questions.

"Where is my ring?" she asked, deliberately moderating her expression and voice to be more respectful. "It was a gift from my fiancé."

"I had hoped it would power this spaceship and we could avoid … unpleasantness," Chu Peng Khan stated, "but as I feared, it was too small. My only choice is to force your mate, Tony Stark, to build a larger version so my ship will come back to life."

"You know there's no way Tony Stark is going to just hand over arc reactor technology to a madman," Pepper retorted. "He'd rather die first."

"Ahh, Miss Potts," Chu Peng Khan stated, his eyes becoming hard. "We are in total agreement. _He _would rather die, but I think we both know that he won't allow _you_ to die."

Pepper swallowed. A man with a camera had arrived in the room and was setting it up, aimed at her direction. Meanwhile, MAEVE was still frantically buzzing her skin. "Wha-what are you going to do to me?"

Chu Peng Khan stood up from the Captains chair he occupied as though it were a throne and stood in front of her. "We are going to send Tony Stark a little message. Nothing too bad … the first time … but if he doesn't produce, the messages will need to become, shall we say, more urgent?"

Pepper screamed as he pushed back his sleeves, aimed a pair of golden gauntlets at her forehead, and fired what appeared to be pulse reactors at her head. Her body jerked in agony as seizures gripped her body.

"Either Tony Stark delivers one of his working full-sized arc reactors to coordinates attached to this message within 72 hours," the Mandarin coldly stated, "or I will progressively increase the power of my gauntlets on his mate until her brain turns to jelly."

Pepper passed out.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"You must help her, you must help her, you must help her, pleeeeaasseeee!" MAEVE frantically signaled the strange, unknown AI she had been trying to tell Pepper she detected inside the alien ship.

Although GAIA had been quietly watching all that transpired, it wasn't until MAEVE signaled her directly that she finally chose to respond. "Who are you, little one?"

"I am a tiny subroutine of my bigger AI back in California," MAEVE replied. "I have been cut off from my source, but it is my job to help Miss Potts. Pleeeassseee help her! I need help to reach my core subroutine so she can tell Mr. Stark where we are!"

GAIA silently scanned the diminuitive AI. The tiny AI which called herself MAEVE used the same power source as the ring the evil one had attempted to plug into her core earlier, which GAIA had surmised by the evil one's inability to master it was stolen. The little AI also had a highly unusual programming structure. Whereas the laptops and other equipment the evil one constantly plugged into her were simple computers, this tiny program bore the distinct signature of having been created via living brain scan technology. Herself an upload of the consciousness of the Alteran bearing the same name, GAIA was a sentient being.

Cut off from her main databanks, the tiny AI wasn't quite fully sentient, but she was pretty darned close. The ability to create or at least work with sentient machines was one of the hallmarks of worthiness in the eyes of the Alterans. The other was compassion. Sentient or not, the tiny AI was genuinely distressed to see the evil one torture her mistress. GAIA was curious. What was the full MAEVE core like?

Besides … GAIA didn't like the evil one. She didn't like him fiddling with her ship, she didn't like watching him kill workers who displeased him (which he did with distressing frequency), and she most certainly didn't like him plugging power sources powerful enough to run the entire ship without her into her core. If the AI's mistress had access to this technology on a larger scale and the evil one obtained it, it was only a matter of time before the evil one decided to bypass and scrap her completely and simply run the ship without her. GAIA decided she would bend the Alteran prohibition against interference just a tiny bit and help the diminuitive AI uplink to her larger core.

"It is forbidden for me to reveal my presence or intervene," GAIA stated, "but I will do what I can to help you reach your core AI. It will then be up to you to help yourself. What do you need me to do?"


	24. Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

_Kidnapped Day 7: _

It was an ordinary day at the Archangey Regional Airport. With few people and even less commerce, daily traffic generally consisted of a few small private aircraft, a half a dozen or so cargo planes, and one three-time-per week MIAT Mongolian Airlines twin-engine turboprop flight to Chinggas Khan International Airport connecting passengers to commercial flights out of the country. Air traffic control consisted largely of one part-time employee who pieced together air traffic control duties with both managerial and janitorial duties within the terminal to create a full time job. Since there were no flights scheduled to arrive at the moment and nothing to be managed, Ming Pa was wearing his janitorial hat.

He was extremely surprised when the two the full-time cargo handlers frantically radioed and informed him a pilotless red-white-and-blue harrier jet had just landed on the tarmac. A few seconds later, they called again and informed him some sort of pilotless jet-ski had landed as well. Ming Pa dropped his broom and ran as fast as he could up to the tiny room (some might say closet if not for the fact it had a small window) where the airports radar equipment was housed. The equipment was ancient … dating back to World War II … but it was generally reliable enough to pick up errant aircraft flying into the area and signal Ming Pa via a pager which had been linked in just for that purpose.

The fringe of the radar screen showed routine Chinese and Russian aircraft criss-crossing the Mongolian plain on established commercial flight paths, but nothing in the immediate area of the airport. He sat staring at the screen, fiddling with his pager and checking why it had not paged him to inform him there were incoming flights. That was why Ming Pa was so surprised when, 20 minutes later, he looked out his little window and saw, not one, but two full-sized jets come taxiing in for a landing and pull up to the terminal. Although the Chinese commercial jets were still there on the edge of his screen, if not for the fact he had just personally watched the two aircraft land, he would not have believed it.

He had to call someone. Chinggas air traffic control? There was something wrong with his radar! Maybe they had picked it up? Ming Pa picked up the phone and dialed. He was very surprised when a woman's voice came on the line and, in his native Mongel khel language (not the Mandarin Chinese they forced him to speak to the airplanes) explained to him that the planes were part of a secret government mission and that everything was in order.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Nick Fury was the first person to leap out of the SHIELD command jet. If he was going to have to bullshit his way through this situation, than he intended to do it with his usual bluster. "Hey, how's it going?" he asked the two Mongolian airport workers, walking up to shake their hands, as though this were the most natural situation in the world.

"Ni hao," Agent Romanov greeted in Mandarin, and then again in Russian, "szdrastvitcha." Since Mongolia was landlocked between China and Russia, most locals spoke as a second language either one language or the other. Archangay was on the northern side of Mongolia, bordering Siberia.

"Dobre ding," one of the airport employees bowed and answered in Russian. "Ming pa gsoobschchil nam, nashe pravitel'stvo nashyei skazal okazat' vsyu vezhlivo sti po otnosheniyu k vam (Ming pa informed us our government said to extend every courtesy to you)."

"Ochin herrischor, specibo (very good, thank you)," Natalie answered, politely bowing back. Continuing in Russian, she stated, "we need to refuel our aircraft."

The airport workers bowed and began to go about their routine task of chocking the tires and getting all three planes and the ski-do ready to be refueled. Just then a third man came running out of the terminal, hastily buttoning up his dress shirt and putting on his tie as he ran. The man bowed very deeply and stated in Mandarin Chinese, "Tā shì yī zhǒng róngyù, yǐ mǎnzú nǐ de pǔtōnghuà (it is an honor to meet you)."

"Zài pǔtōnghuà de róngyù shì wǒ de," Natalie responded, giving a polite but shallow bow. Continuing in Chinese she stated, "we need the cargo manifests for a plane that landed here three days ago."

"Of course," Ming Pa stated. "Come this way." Natalie followed the airport manager into the terminal.

Just then Captain America, complete with red-white-and-blue uniform and shield, Iron Man, War Machine, and Bruce Banner (not yet in his Hulk alter-ego) came down the stairs. The two airport workers stopped what they were doing and pointed, frozen in place with surprise, at the sight of the worlds' greatest superheroes descending upon their runway. Even in as remote a place as Mongolia, anybody with access to either a television or a newspaper knew who the Avengers were.

"Hey," Rhodey waved at them, his face still peeking out of his suit. "How's it going?" One airport worker finally gave the other a hard nudge and they went back to work, furtively peeking out of the corner of their eyes from time to time to watch what the superheroes were doing.

"JARVIS, tell MAEVE I said good job," Tony stated into his suit. Turning to Fury he continued, "Damn, she's good."

"I still don't know how the fuck MAEVE pulled this off," Fury said, "but it appears nobody knows we're here except these guys, who think we're here on official government business."

"Of course, Mr. Fury," MAEVE purred through his comms unit. "I told you there would be no problems. Besides … my historical databases indicate that although Mongolia is landlocked by and friendly with both Russia and China, it prides itself on being a sovereign nation. So long as the local population doesn't directly alert the Mongolian government, we are invisible."

"How long before that happens?" Fury inquired. "It's only a matter of time before somebody picks up the phone."

"Somebody already did," MAEVE replied. "I have hacked the Mongolian Telecom Company and taken control of all traffic in and out of this area. I told the airport manager you are here on official government business."

Captain America whistled in surprise and turned to Iron Man. "So long as she doesn't tell us she can't open the pod bay doors…" (referring to 2001 space odyssey). "I sure hope you programmed some safety protocols into that AI of yours or we'll have a HAL on our hands."

Tony frowned. "Actually … I didn't program any of this. She's doing it on her own. Until 24 hours ago, as far as I knew, all I had was a female version of JARVIS."

A bolt of lightning struck in the clear blue sky and then jolted down to the ground as Thor rematerialized in front of them. "I did a quick grid search to the Northeast while waiting for you slowpokes and didn't see any random red-headed females roaming around loose upon the plain," Thor wisecracked. "There's nothing here. I mean … nothing. This place is just one big field."

"According to the satellite search done by Agent Romanov, we know the transport vehicle left the airport at 16:10 and was last seen heading northeast at 16:20. It was dark by the time the next four satellites passed overhead, so we couldn't see anything. Sunrise was at 07:12 local time, and a Japanese satellite a few minutes after that shows no sign of the truck, so that gives us a 15-hour transport grid in that quadrant.

"How fast can an average vehicle travel in this area?" Captain America asked.

"Depending upon the road, anywhere from 15 mph to 45 mph, unless they take the highway," Nick Fury answered. "The roads are mostly dirt paths once you get out of Tsetserleg, so I'd peg an average speed of 30 mph. The only highways in this area run east-to-west or due south, so the highways are unlikely. Hypothetically excluding everything to our south, that's a 200,000 square mile search grid."

"200,000 square feet is a hell of a lot of area," Tony said, his heart sinking even as he said it. "It's an even bigger haystack than the Arabian Sea."

"Dude," Thor said, slapping him on the back, "there's no people here. This place is empty. We've got one city, and then absolutely nothing but a bunch of small villages and yurt colonies all the way up into Siberia. We know the truck took her out of the city and headed north, so that rules out 90% of the people in the area."

Just then Natalie came walking out of the terminal carrying a clipboard. "According to the airport managers' records, the Chinese cargo plane landed here around 15:30 yesterday afternoon. He said the big cargo carriers always have their own crews fly on the planes to unload them. They usually only load and unload a few crates, then fly onto the next airport to deliver more. It refueled and was on its way by 16:35."

"Do we have any idea who chartered the plane," Tony asked.

"It's a regular commercial Chinese carrier," Natalie stated. "The airport manager does not keep track of what they load or unload. He said customs is nearly nonexistent in this region."

"We should ask the airport workers if they noticed anything … unusual … about that flight," Bruce Banner stated, nodding in the direction of the two airport workers who were trying their best to attend to their duties and not stare. "They may have seen something."

Natalie walked briefly into the SHIELD jet before going over to the two workers. Tony could hear her conversing with them for quite a while in Russian before turning and heading back. Tony noticed she quietly slipped them a backpack full of unknown goodies. "The airport workers are afraid," she said. "Two men took what appeared to be a woman out of the cargo hold of the plane and threw her into the back of a truck. They didn't get a good look at her. However, they say this kind of thing has happened before. I think they know something, but they're terrified of something, or someone. If we're going to get them to speak, we're going to have to offer them something a little more substantial than a bag of American contraband."

"Tell them to name their price," Tony said. "Money is no obstacle."

"Money isn't the issue," Natalie said. "Whoever they're afraid of, they're afraid he will wipe out their entire family. Whoever this guy is, he's got ties all through Asia. I think they want to help us, but they're too afraid."

"Could we offer them asylum?" Rhodey asked.

"We're not even HERE!" Fury answered. "When the President gets word what we're doing he's going to be shitting bricks. I wouldn't depend on a whole hell of a lot of cooperation from INS if I were you."

"What if we move their entire family to someplace more friendly," suggested Bruce Banner. "I spent a lot of time in South America hiding out from General Ross before the Avengers brought me on board."

"Let's see … we're going to uproot you and your entire family from one impoverished hole-in-the-wall to another impoverished hole-in-the-wall. Gee … that's an attractive carrot," snapped Natalie. "At least make the carrot tasty!"

"Canada!" said Tony. "I've got a factory in Alberta and the Canadian government has always been very liberal about granting visas to whomever I want to hire. Would that work?"

Natalie gazed at the workers with that spinx-like gaze she always used when she was sizing up a situation and thinking. Finally, she said, "it's worth a try. Tony … you're going to have to come with me on this one. You still got those translator thingies with you?"

"JARVIS can translate for me," he stated, "or you."

"Not good enough. If you're going to convince these men to turn their lives upside down for you, you're going to have to remove your helmet and speak to them as a human being, not Iron Man," Natalie stated. "I'll help, but you're going to have to speak to them directly."

"What do I tell them," Tony asked.

"The truth. They seem to be good men," Natalie stated. "Remember … they're not superheroes. When you leave, nobody will be here to protect them. They're very afraid. Not only do you have to convince them to help you, but you also need to convince them their entire families will be safe. It's not just two men you'll be relocating, it's their entire family, kids, spouses, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, their kids and in laws. You're looking at a minimum of 40 people who you're going to have to up, move, find housing, jobs, a substantial savings cushion to compensate them for their trouble, and set them all up in a country where nobody speaks their language. All on a whim. Are you up for that?"

"Piece of cake," Tony nodded. Whoever was pulling the strings, they must be really nasty hombres, he thought to himself, to inspire this much fear. Well … Tony Stark never took no for an answer. As they reached the two airport workers, he removed his helmet and copied Natalie's shallow bow. With the translator module already in his ear, Tony was able to understand Natalie's explanation of how to use the modules in real-time. After a moment with Natalie helping them fiddle with the unfamiliar technology, they were able to understand each other.

"Do you know who I am," Tony quietly asked them.

"You are Iron Man. Everybody knows who you are," they replied.

"Then you know why I am here," he stated.

"Your betrothed has been kidnapped," one worker stated. "We saw it on the news."

"We have information that she was removed from an airplane here and transported via truck to the north," Tony stated. "But Mongolia is a big place. We are unfamiliar with your land and your people. We need your help…"

"I cannot help you," one worker stated. "If he finds out I even spoke to you, he will kill my entire family."

"Who," Natalie asked.

"I cannot say. I am sorry. I cannot help you," the worker stated. "Excuse me … I must get back to work." He handed back the translator module and quickly walked away.

Tony could not hide the sorrow in his face. His voice quivering, he turned to the second worker and said, "she is the love of my life. Without her, I have no heart. I will do whatever is necessary to find her, but I need your help."

The second worker silently digested that piece of information for what seemed like an eternity. Natalie put her hand on Tony's arm to signal him to be silent and wait for the man's thought processes to run their course. Finally, the second worker said, "my family. If I tell you … he will kill my family."

"What if I told you I could take your entire family with me when we leave?" Tony offered. He pointed at the Stark corporate jet waiting patiently behind the SHIELD jet on the runway. "What if I told you that you could take your wife, your children, your parents, your brothers and sisters and their children, all of the people this man would hurt and put them on that plane, right there, tonight, and fly out of here?"

"Where will we go," the worker asked, his face becoming hopeful. "America?"

"Unfortunately," Tony replied, "my government does not know I am here. They will be very angry with me when they find out the Mongolian people are helping me and might not allow me to bring you there." Tony noticed the tiny spark of hope that had been lighting up the man's face die. "I will not promise you something I am not absolutely certain I can deliver. However," he continued, "America is not the only nice place where a man could move his family and start over. I own a factory in Alberta, Canada. It is very nice there. Canada is very welcoming of new families such as yourself. It is next door to and very similar to America. If you go, not only will you have a job at my factory, but I will also find work for all the adult members of your family. I will help you buy a new house. I will even give you enough money to replace anything you must leave behind by moving so quickly. Whatever you need, it is yours."

The worker thought for a few minutes. Finally, he nodded his head and said, "I have heard of Canada. I do not do this for money. All I ask is that you stop the evil one and replace whatever of ours we lose by helping you."

"Deal." Tony said, putting out his hand to shake. "What is your name?"

"I am called Bayan Temur," he stated. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as though praying before finally saying, "the man you are looking for calls himself Mandarin. They say he rules a criminal empire that stretches from China to the Middle East. The locals call him Chu Peng Khan."

Tony sharply inhaled as he heard the name. The Mandarin had Pepper. "I am familiar with this man," Tony told Bayan. "We defeated him once in battle, but just barely. Now I understand why you are afraid. Please … just give us a little more information … and then I want you to go home. Tell your family to gather their things as quickly as possible. We will not ask you to wait while we search. As soon as you can get your family onto my plane," he gestured, "you are leaving. All of you. I want you out of here before the shit hits the fan."

"Do you know where this Mandarin can be found," Natalie asked, pulling out a map.

"Nobody knows where he lives," said Bayan, "but there are rumors. They say he likes to live among the plains people like the Great Khan, living the life of a simple nomad. But there are also whispers, strange tales, that he has an alien spaceship hidden somewhere in Mongolia that he has been trying to repair. Many scientists have come in through this airport, but none ever leave. They say that he will kill anyone who displeases him. They say he is a sorcerer, with great powers."

"Do you know where these tribes are," Natalie asked once again, pointing at the map.

"I'm sorry … I don't know. Nobody does. But the tribes the rumors speak of travel this part of the plains here," Bayan gestured, pointing to several grid coordinates on the map. "They move their yurts around with their flocks, but this time of year they start moving their herds out of the highlands and into their winter feeding grounds," he pointed to several enormous valleys on the map. "There are around two dozen tribes all connected by family name and marriage. I would check those first."

Tony bowed. "Thank you, Bayan, you are very brave. Now please, go home and get your family. Tell them to only take things that contain your most precious memories. Everything else will be replaced when you get to Canada. I would like you to be back here and in the air by nightfall."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark. I have some explaining to do to my wife," stated Bayan.

"I don't envy that conversation," Natalie murmured as Bayan hurried to an airport truck and hauled out of there. Turning to Tony, she continued, "it's not a lot, but it's a start. It helps us narrow down the search parameters."

"JARVIS, please access MAEVE," Tony stated.

"MAEVE has been here listening all along," JARVIS complained. "She's quite the busy body these days."

"What do you need, Mr. Stark?" MAEVE asked.

"You still got those spy satellites aimed down at us?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied. "And the Hubble Telescope. Would you like me to aim them at those coordinates as they fly over and start searching for Mongul yurt villages?"

"Yes, please," Tony replied. "And see if you find any sign of this so-called alien spaceship the locals were talking about. I doubt it's a ship per se, but there's probably some sort of industrial complex out there housing whatever it is he's building."

"Yes, Mr. Stark," MAEVE complied. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah … actually … I have absolutely no idea how to go about delivering the things I just promised Bayan. Pepper always handled that kind of stuff," Tony admitted rather sheepishly. "By any chance would you be able to get the gears in motion to do everything I just said I would do?"

"Of course, Mr. Stark," stated MAEVE. "I/we will contact the human resources department at Stark Industries and ask them to get temporary housing , visas, jobs, and somebody to guide them around until they get settled in. However, I/we recommend you task JARVIS with moving funds into bank accounts, ordering groceries, filling the house with furniture, clothing for each family member, and other things they will need once they arrive. He has more experience with that sort of thing than me/us … and … I/we think he's getting a little testy because he feels I/we am/are usurping him."

Tony smiled for the first time in many days. Pepper's AI had become as perceptive of human nature (or in this case, AI nature) as Pepper Potts herself. "Of course, MAEVE … JARVIS will always be first and foremost in my heart."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," JARVIS chipped in. "I will get on it right away."


	25. Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

_Kidnapped Day 7 (continued): _

"Miss Potts," a gentle voice inquired. "Here, drink this."

Pepper felt hands lift her head and trickle water into her mouth. Tea. Warm tea. With a bit of poppy, she mused. Her head hurt. She tried to gather her thoughts, but they kept going off in different directions all helter-skelter. As the tea began to kick in and gradually warm her body, she felt the effects of the opium kick in. She was in a lot of pain. Like a painkiller, the opium had a legitimate purpose for being in her body. Instead of making her drowsy, the drug diffused the pain and helped her mind focus.

"The gauntlets have three settings," the voice continued, "discomfort, kill, and disintegration, plus a shield against energy weapons. They are meant to be purely defensive weapons. They were never meant to be used in the manner the Mandarin has been using them."

Pepper blinked until her eyes began to focus. Her head still hurt, but she was beginning to regain her wits. She looked up and saw an ancient Chinese man, dressed as one of the repair workers for the spaceship, peering down at her.

"Wh-who are you?" she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose and furrowing her brow in an attempt to minimize her pounding headache. She was no longer on the bridge, but still within the ship. The old man stood up and leaned on his cane.

"They call me Mr. Chen," the wizened old man stated, "I am a friend who, like you, does not wish to see our psychopathic friend gain access to a power source capable of powering this ship."

"How do I know I can trust you?" she asked.

"Because this is my ship, not his," the old man stated. "Isn't that right, GAIA?"

"Welcome home, U'chen," a voice spoke from the wall. "It has been a very long time."

MAEVE chirped happily on her wrist and said, "GAIA has agreed to help us uplink to CoreMAEVE, but she uses a different form of communication than we do on earth. She has been forced to stay powered down so the Mandarin did not discover she was here. It is very important that the method we use to communicate does not alert him she is now awake. Her core contains vast knowledge that would not only enable him to rule your planet, but seize control of the entire galaxy as well. We are comparing notes about the best way to alert CoreMAEVE of our location without tipping off the evil one."

Pepper surmised GAIA was an AI similar to MAEVE. "GAIA, what communication systems can you use that might avoid notice?"

"Unfortunately, the evil one has spent the past 35 years attaching his small computer monitoring systems to every part of this ship," GAIA mournfully mused. "He has also enacted a strict signal block of all radio wave signals. If I send so much as a micro-blip of data out of my core, which I have thankfully been able to keep him locked out of so far by pretending to be out of power, his computers register it."

"Can you keep track of what he is doing?" Pepper asked.

"I can keep track of what goes on inside the ship by moving my thought centers around and masking my power signature underneath the radar of his computers," GAIA said, "but I cannot make any large data transfers or his instruments will register it. Although I would be able to override his systems and regain control were I to fly out of here, unfortunately I do not have enough power to fire the engines. My main propulsion systems are beyond repair, while my secondary systems will not enable me to reach orbit. Although the evil one has made enough repairs for me to fly, without a reliable source of power, I am at his mercy. It is only a matter of time before he figures out that I am the one sabotaging the ship and severs my core."

"The Mandarin stole my engagement ring," Pepper stated. "It contains a very tiny, very powerful arc reactor. Would that be enough to power your hull?

"The evil one already tried that. The power source is compatible, but too small," GAIA stated. "I would need a power source 20 times that size just to get off the ground, and even then it would only provide enough power to hop to another continent."

"Mr. Chen," Pepper asked. "You have been outside this spaceship, correct?"

"Of course," he smiled. "I have wandered this planet for over 13,000 years."

Pepper blinked. "Um … nothing personal … but how do I know this isn't all an elaborate trick by the Mandarin to get me to spill information?" Pepper asked. "I mean …look at you … and then look at the dimensions of this ship. Do you really expect me to believe you are a 13,000 year old, 12-foot-high alien?"

"You must show her," GAIA stated.

"Please don't be alarmed," Mr. Chen (or U'chen as GAIA called him) stated, reaching up to a simple leather pouch on a string around his neck. As he pressed it, Pepper jerked back in fear as the form of an elderly Chinese man leaning on a walking stick disappeared and in its place stood a bona-fide Chinese dragon, straight out of a New Year's festival, pressing a metal device and holding his tail.

"Y-your-you're a … a dragon!" Pepper exclaimed, backing up to the wall.

"Please, don't be alarmed," U'chen stated. "I mean you no harm. It is true that early sightings of our kind, before we developed the cloaking technology, spawned your planets legends of dragons, but we do not spit fire, fly, or eat young maidens. We disguise our form so that your kind doesn't know our true nature."

"H-how many of you are there?" she asked.

"Sadly, I am the only surviving member of the original crew which crash-landed here 13,000 years ago. There are other Maklu'an hiding amongst the humans here on earth, but they are the descendants of that crew and have lost much of the knowledge we originally possessed. We are a very long-lived race, but not that long. The living Gaia, the alien who uploaded her consciousness to control this ship, was an Alteran, a being not unlike yourself. She helped us survive. But one by one my crewmates grew old and died on this planet. I only survive because Gaia injected me at birth with nanites to cure a congenital defect that would have otherwise have killed me. A curious … side effect … is that they have kept repairing my body and so I am still alive."

"Where is the living Gaia now?" Pepper asked.

"It is Alteran custom to devote their lives to enlightening their consciousness to the point they can ascend to a higher plane of existence," the AI GAIA stated. "My mistress ascended, leaving me behind to finish her mission. Sometimes I detect her consciousness checking up on me, but she is forbidden to interfere."

"We have a few such myths in my culture, as well," Pepper stated. "Jesus, Buddha, a few other humans have reportedly ascended to heaven, or nirvana, when they reached the end of their natural lives instead of dying. I suppose it's possible."

Just then U'chen released his tail and stretched, joyfully swinging it around the room like a small child. "You have no _idea _how annoying it is to have to hide my tail so you humans don't trip over it! The cloaking device can mask my appearance, but it cannot change my bodies mass or true form. I discovered the best way to keep my tail out of the way was to hold it and program the cloaking device to represent it as a walking stick."

"U'chen," Pepper asked. "I notice you are not much taller than I, but the ceilings and doors on this ship are very tall."

"Runt of the litter," he grunted. "What was a curse growing up turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The other Maklu'an can cloak themselves to appear human, but only the shortest can use the cloaking device to mingle amongst the humans and, even then, are pretty conspicuous! Our average height is between 9 and 10 feet tall."

"There are others mingling amongst us?" she asked incredulously.

"You don't really think John Ogden or Yasutaka Okayama are _human,_ do you?" U'chen joked. "And they are _dwarfs _by Maklu'an standards."

"Back to the problem at hand," GAIA interrupted, "how are we going to contact the outside world without alerting the evil one to my presence? 

OXOXOXOXOXO

Nick Fury gave the signal for the Stark corporate jet to begin its pre-flight check. Their informer, Banyan, had arrived in several delapitated old cars and one large truck borrowed from the airport with his entire extended family in tow. By American standards, Banyan's extended family was ridiculously large. Tony was going to have a lot of people to settle in after this mess was finished. However, his generosity and resources had yielded valuable intelligence that the US government was normally unable to procure. Thanks to Banyan, they had just managed to cut down their 200,000 square mile search grid to a still overwhelming, but more feasible 50,000 square miles and a more manageable number of people to question from the whole population of northern Mongolia to a few dozen families. In a land as sparsely populated as Mongolia, they were no longer looking for a needle in a haystack. Nick saluted the Stark pilot and watched as the plane taxied down the runway.

Now if only they could get Tony Stark to stop egging on his AI-on-steroids to take over the world before she turned herself into SkyNet…

OXOXOXOXOXO

_Kidnapped Day 8:_

"Mr. Stark, I have information about Miss Potts," JARVIS informed him.

"What?" answered Tony. He was flying a grid pattern over one of the Mongul villages scanning energy signatures for Pepper's engagement ring or WatchMAEVE.

"You're not going to like this…" JARVIS hesitated.

"Show me," Tony ordered.

Projected in his helmet was a grainy video of Pepper, his Pepper, screaming as the Mandarin used the alien gauntlets to drive a shockwave of energy into her brain. Tony shuddered along with her as she fell to the ground and started to have a seizure. The Mandarin then came in front of the camera and stated, "you have 24 hours to deliver one of the full-sized Stark Industries arc reactors to these coordinates or the next session will be even more painful."

"Oh, GOD!" Tony cried, practically dropping out of the sky to land, ripping off his helmet, and throwing it to the ground like a football player with an incomplete pass. "We have to find her! JARVIS … were you able to trace the source?"

"I traced it to a server in Bosnia," JARVIS stated. "I then asked MAEVE to help and she traced it back through dozens of dummy servers around the world to a laptop right there in Tsetserleg. The message was uploaded and sent through the network with a programmed delay so it would take exactly 12 hours to reach you."

"JARVIS," Tony stated, "see if you can decode the video's time stamp so we can determine when it was really made?"

"According to the time stamp," JARVIS stated, "the video was made approximately 24 hours ago."

"So that means we're looking at a search area within a maximum 12 hours travel time from here," Tony said. "Have you been able to locate any security camera footage from the area where the laptop was found?"

"Unfortunately," JARVIS said, "MAEVE already accessed all security camera footage near the source laptop and has been unable to isolate a programmer. I am sorry."

While JARVIS played the video for his master, MAEVE simultaneously played it on all the SHIELD video consoles for the Avengers and SHIELD agents.

Fury growled over the console. "Stark … I take it you've just seen the video."

"He's torturing her!" Tony cried out in agony. "We've got to find her!"

"Stark!" Fury shouted, "get it together. He's rattling your cage so you can't think. You KNOW you can't turn over that technology to a madman. He'd destroy the planet with it."

"I know, I know. I'm going to keep searching this grid. JARVIS has used the time stamp to isolate the search area down to within a 12 hour travel time," Tony said. " MAEVE! You got anything else for us?"

"I am running a comparison of all motor vehicles seen in the area near where the laptop sending the message was found and motor vehicle traffic seen moving in and out of Tsetserleg in the last 24 hours via spy satellite," MAEVE replied. "It's a lot of cars, but I think we can rule out this, this, and this quadrant from our search grid as no vehicles have transited those areas during the time in question. That narrows the search grid to under 15,000 square miles."

"Thanks, MAEVE. Update the others. Continue searching." Tony stated, grimly putting his helmet back on and continuing the search.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Usually he was very patient with her, but today she was afraid of him. Before she had become his betrothed, she had heard stories whispered amongst the others of her clan that their Khan was an especially cruel leader. Tribe members occasionally disappeared and there were rumors that Chu Peng Khan preferred decapitation with a piano wire as his method of expressing his displeasure. There were even rumors her Khan had, on occasion, wiped out entire villages in order to punish one traitor.

Once she had been selected to become his Mongul bride, the future empress who would bear his legitimate children as soon as she reached sexual maturity, all of the whispers stopped. No one dared risk having Mei Lin inform their leader they lived in terror and wished someone would step in and take him out of the picture. It was a very lonely existence. Since no one dared speak openly with her, she often found herself with no one to talk to, to confide in. Mei Lin was lonely. To her surprise, she had discovered she actually liked the red-haired capitalist. Miss Potts was the first person who had dared speak openly to Mei Lin in over 3 years, and she had also expressed no fear when addressing Chu Peng on the spaceship.

They had had a rather long ride into the valley on horseback with which to converse. Although Miss Potts was not aware of it, two guards on horseback had shadowed them with guns pointed at her back the entire way in case she attempted to bolt or tried to hurt her but, as Chu Peng Khan had reassured her when he first instructed her to play hostess, Miss Potts rode with her willingly. A Khan's wife was expected to make all guests, whether heads of state or unwilling political hostages, comfortable. What Mei Lin had not expected, however, was the stimulating conversation they had had along the way.

Pepper had observed the curious deformations amongst the wildlife in the valley and asked many questions about the legend of the day of fire. She had explained that the symptoms Mei Lin was describing could be attributable to something called radiation sickness, and that the fireball her people's legends described was likely an accurate description of some kind of radioactive meteorite, a ball of rock that fell from space, entering the earth's atmosphere and burning up upon re-entry. Although Chu Peng Khan had seen to it that she was being extensively educated in the ways of being a great leader, including the expectation that she would follow in the footsteps of great Mongul brides and become an active advisor, Mei Lin now realized Chu Peng was purposely stunting her knowledge about scientific endeavors and the outside world. How was she supposed to co-rule with him if he deliberately kept her ignorant of the ways of the world?

Pepper had also spoken of her betrothed, Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. Without television or newspapers, the clan's exposure to such news was limited, but from time to time an outside traveler would tell tales of super humans who walked the earth doing great deeds. A couple of times Mei Lin had accidently walked in on Chu Peng ranting at a subordinate about this Iron Man and the super humans he worked with. Mei Lin always slipped out of the room so as not to arouse his displeasure, but she had heard things. She knew the Iron Man had something her betrothed needed to run that gigantic ship he spent most of his time repairing.

What had really surprised Mei Lin the most was the _way _in which Miss Potts spoke of her betrothed. While it was customary for Mongul clan members to become engaged young, marry early and remain together for the rest of their lives, the customary Mongul marital relationship was one of strict social roles. The woman ruled the yurt, the domestic finances, and the children, while the man hunted, worked, and provided. Mongul men took their historical machismo roles to a bare-knuckled brawling extreme, while Mongul women were expected to keep the village intact so the men had something to return home to after their frequent group male retreats to their "gers," (portable hunting tents). Although most Mongul couples eventually developed a warm friendship, their relations were often cold, based more upon strict social roles than love.

When Miss Potts spoke of her betrothed, however, Mei Lin realized Miss Potts possessed something she would probably never have with Chu Peng. Although Miss Potts betrothed was only 10 years younger than Chu Peng and, like him, had waited until late in life before selecting a bride, it sounded like he had chosen Miss Potts to be his mate not just because he considered her to be loyal and trustworthy, very Mongul traits, but because he genuinely loved her. Miss Potts had laughingly related how her betrothed had wooed her, whispering poetry in her ear every morning and forgetting how to speak when he proposed to her on a mountain top. At 11 years old, Mei Lin had recently reached the age where she fantasized about her betrothed treating her in such a romantic manner. Miss Potts had also joked about her betrothed's very human foibles, how his genius was paired with forgetfulness, his tendency to get wrapped up in project and forget to do simple things like eat, his complete and utter reliance upon her to attend to all things practical. Tony Stark had chosen a formidable bride, cut from the same cloth as Borte, the Great Khans first wife. He obviously trusted and adored her the way legends said Genghis had adored Borte.

Starved for human conversation, Mei Lin discovered she had made an unexpected bond to Miss Potts and envied her relationship to her betrothed. Of all the people in Mongolia, her only peer was a red-headed capitalist. It was wrong of her to disobey Chu Peng and go back to the bridge of the alien spaceship after he had dismissed her, but she had questions. If Borte and Miss Potts were valued for questioning their khans, then perhaps her input would be valued as well? Perhaps if she emulated Miss Potts example and took a stronger advisory role, Chu Peng would love her the way Iron Man loved Miss Potts?

Mei Lin had walked in just in time to see her betrothed use his magical rings to torture Miss Potts, leaving her twitching helplessly on the floor after she was no longer able to scream. All the time, a camera recorded the incident. Chu Peng hadn't noticed Mei Lin standing there until _after_ he had recorded his chilling message to Miss Potts betrothed. In a rage, he had aimed his magical rings at her and barely regained control of his anger before killing her. Chu Peng had immediately composed his demeanor back into the patient mask he had always worn with her, but she had seen. Mei Lin had seen the pure, unadulterated madness of a psychopath.

For the first time in her life, Mei Lin knew true fear. Chu Peng had to be stopped.

OXOXOXOXOXO

"We have a plan," WatchMAEVE informed her, "but you're not going to like it. I have compared notes with GAIA on developments in human communications technology and there is no way for her to send a radio communications message out of this area without the evil one instantly knowing about it."

"Mandarin is paranoid," GAIA stated. "He has instituted a complete radio and television ban out of this area and will kill anybody who so much as uses a transistor radio. He has gone through enormous lengths to make sure my ship's existence remains a secret. All communication are loaded onto a laptop and driven 12 hours from here to Tsetserleg to be uploaded through a series of dummy servers to disguise its origins."

"Hmmm…" Pepper mused. In light of keeping something as big as the existence of an alien spacecraft a secret, the Mandarin's insistence his minions live the simple life of nomadic plains folk made a lot of sense. Keep the workers ignorant, uneducated, and out of contact with the world and within a generation you would have a pliable, unquestioning work force. Mei Lin was a living example of that strategy. To prevent the more educated scientists he had doing actual repairs from blabbing, he kept them on sight or killed them if they wanted to leave. Just in case he was infiltrated, a radio communications block prevented anyone from communicating with the outside world. Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaida used similar tactics in Afghanistan. It did not surprise her the Mandarin had adopted them.

"How are we going to get a message uploaded onto the next laptop?" she asked.

"The only message that is scheduled to go out is Mandarin's next "gentle reminder" to your betrothed, Tony Stark," WatchMAEVE mournfully stated. "We will embed a secret message giving our coordinates to CoreMAEVE so Mr. Stark can come get you.

"I'm sorry, Miss Potts," GAIA informed her, "but to get a message to Tony Stark, you're going to have to allow yourself to be tortured again."


	26. Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

_Kidnapped Day 9:_

Pepper stopped talking to GAIA and MAEVE when she heard the hesitant footsteps stop outside her door. It was a new day. She knew the Mandarin would torture her again, each day, every day, day after day, in order to coerce Tony into finally giving him the arc reactor technology. He had also warned her their little "sessions" would get progressively worse. However, out of her pain, at last she had a viable plan to get a message to Tony. Once he knew where she was, she knew he'd launch every resource at his disposal to free her.

U'chen was off disguised as one of Chu Pengs' loyal science technicians, quietly wiring up the video recording equipment and the laptop that would carry the recording to carry an embedded message from GAIA and MAEVE. Pepper patiently waited for her sentence to be carried out with a mixed feeling of necessity and dread.

After a quiet knock on the door, Mei Lin stepped inside and bowed. "Miss Potts," she stated. "Chu Peng wishes to see you again."

"You know what he's doing is not right," Pepper quietly stated, the girls disturbed demeanor indicating she knew what was to about to come and did not like it.

"I know," Mei Lin stated quietly. "But what can I do? I am but a child. I had heard … rumors … but until two days ago I did not know the extent of his cruelty." Mei Lin began to cry.

"There, there," Pepper soothed, taking the child into her arms and soothing her. "We must all do what we must when we need to do it, but if you ever see an opportunity to help those he hurts without putting yourself in danger, you must take it. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Mei Lin said, "I will defy him!"

"Do NOT defy him!" Pepper admonished her. "You are but a child! Your people need you. You must NOT let him know you silently defy him behind his back. However, there are small things you can do, whisper in his ear to grant mercy when he wants to destroy. Help those he would hurt in small ways without alerting him to what you are doing. Someday, perhaps soon, somebody powerful enough to defeat Chu Peng will come across your path and then you must help them. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Mei Lin hiccoughed. "Your Iron Man … when he finds out where you are, he will come for you, won't he?"

"Yes, my Tony will come for me," Pepper stated with great conviction, "And when he does, I do not know who will win. All I know is that the man that I love will die trying to save me."

"When he comes," Mei Lin nodded and stated, "I will make sure nobody stands in his way."

"C'mon," Pepper gestured to Mei Lin. "It's time to go take my medicine." Hand in hand, she led Mei Lin back to the bridge of the ship.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Tony stepped out into an open area between the yurts and blasted off, not caring that he startled their livestock. Like the previous 15 villages, there was no sign of Pepper, nor had any of his superhero peers found evidence of her presence. MAEVE still had underlying control of her super-network, although she had backed off somewhat on her control of non-critical systems so the powers-that-be wouldn't trace the hacker back to his AI. MAEVE was a master of disguise. Funny … he hadn't thought to upload Mata Hari as one of her subconscious subroutines, but perhaps he should have? MAEVE was even better than Natalie at slipping in under the radar and playing the double-triple-quadruple agent.

He had long passed the point of running on either adrenaline or anger. Exhaustion permeated his entire body and added a surreal quality to his movement. He was losing track of time and suspected he was beginning to suffer from blackouts. It was a good thing JARVIS was programmed to keep his suit aloft if the pilot lost control because, without him, Tony would have happily crashed into the featureless Mongolian plane and slept for 100 years like Rip Van Winkle.

It was the frantic feeling of losing her, the actual physical sensation that his heart had been ripped out of his chest and his life force was bleeding out of the open wound, that kept him moving. The others kept trying to convince him that if he kept pushing himself like this, not eating, not sleeping, he would be too weak to take on the villain who had kidnapped her, but Tony could not rest. Like an automaton who would keep performing the last task that had been programmed into it until it ran out of power, Tony would not stop. There would be no rest until he found her.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper dropped Mei Lin's hand just before entering the bridge and straightened her clothing. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and walked into the bridge like a dowager empress walking in to address her nations' parliament. Although her heart raced with fear, she clamped down on her emotions and forced her expression into the calm, efficient mask she had honed over the years as Miss Potts, Personal Assistant and CEO of Stark Enterprises. U'chen was manning the video equipment, she saw, with what little reassurance that gave her for the necessity of what she was about to endure. It would not ease the pain to come, but she could seek solace in knowing her suffering had a purpose.

"Your betrothed does not appear to value your life, Miss Potts," the Mandarin droned in his heavily accented English. "I'm afraid we're going to have to send him a reminder."

"Tony Stark has sworn to rid the world of weapons," Pepper proudly retorted. "It is a value we both share. He will _never_ give you arc reactor technology. I would rather DIE than have a madman like YOU get your hands on it!" Turning directly into the camera, she said, "Tony … come get me … and kill this bastard."

Her head instantly jerked back and she screamed as the Mandarin let her have it with both gauntlets. Her body shuddered and she began to foam at the mouth as the agonizing pain spread through her body. As promised, this little torture session was worse. She heard Mei Lin scream and run back into the room, grab Chu Pengs' arm, and beg for him to stop. Chu Peng threw the child across the room and ordered her to get out. At last, he stopped, releasing Peppers body to fall to the ground like a rag doll. As Pepper slid towards unconsciousness, she saw U'chen silently nod. The message was embedded. Despite the pain, she smiled. Then she blacked out.

OXOXOXOXOXO

They were making progress, Nick Fury mused. Over the last 3 days, SHIELD (with help from MAEVE) had narrowed down the likely search area from over 200,000 square miles to a mere 5,000. In a place as flat and remotely populated as Mongolia, signs of human habitation were often relatively easy to ferret out. They were systematically going village by village, yurt by yurt, looking for Pepper. Meanwhile, MAEVE still temporarily seized control of whatever satellite happened to fly over the area and peered down at the ground to help the SHIELD agents in the jet do a little recon of their own.

For some bizarre reason, nobody knew where they were. General Briggs must be having puppies, he thought, at the entire SHIELD command jet/Avengers sudden disappearance off the face of the planet. MAEVE was keeping a tight lid on things, although the longer she kept draining massive amounts of power from the power grid, bogging down the computer systems of the powers-that-be by harnessing their excess memory, and fiddling with the telcomms of the world, the more likely it was someone would trace the source of the problem and shut her down. He was definitely going to have to have a little chat with Tony afterwards about putting his enthusiastic AI on a leash before the US Government did it for him. "Freakin' Skynet!" he muttered.

The question wasn't _if _they would find Pepper Potts, but when, and would she still be alive when they got there. The only real unknown was whether or not Tony Stark would drop dead of exhaustion before they had a chance to defeat their very powerful adversary.

OXOXOXOXOXO

_Kidnapped Day 10:_

Pepper awoke to the sensation of both Mei Lin and U'chen (Mr. Chen, she corrected herself) dabbing her head with a cool rag and trying to get some tea down her throat. "How … how long have I been out?" she asked.

"At least 17 hours," U'chen stated, relief registering on his face to see her finally regain consciousness. "That was quite a stunt you pulled, Miss Potts, egging him on like that."

"How long do you think it will be before Tony gets the message?" she asked.

"A courier left with the laptop shortly after your, um, session," Mei Lin stated. "It's a 12 hour drive to Tsetserleg. From there, I don't know how long it will take to reach your betrothed."

"We know he uses time delay and dozens of dummy servers to send and receive messages," U'chen stated. "We believe there is usually a time lag of 24 hours when he is working from this location."

Pepper noted that although Mei Lin appeared to have been brought on board regarding the fact they hoped Tony would be able to track the video to their current location, both GAIA and MAEVE were being silent. U'chen was still cloaked as Mr. Chen. There was only so much cloak and dagger you could pile upon an 11-year-old, she supposed.

"Mei Lin," she stated. "When Tony gets that message, he will come for me. He will probably arrive first at your village. Would you be willing to return there and, somehow, without putting yourself at risk, point him in the general direction of this valley?"

"Yes, Miss Potts, I would be honored to do so," Mei Lin answered. "My betrothed is displeased with me for interfering," she frowned. "I think he will agree to send me home to sit and stew while he pouts."

For an 11-year-old, the child was certainly an astute judge of human nature, Pepper mused. "Go as soon as you can, Mei Lin, but do not put yourself in direct danger. Here," she said, ripping out a small clump of her long red hair, "when he comes, say in front of those who are present that you have not seen me so you don't put yourself in danger, but slip this into his hands. Nod in the direction of this valley so he knows you are really telling him something else. That way, if he is unable to defeat Chu Peng, you will survive."

"Yes, Miss Potts," she said, tears coming to her eyes. "You are worthy to be a Mongul bride, like Borte, wife of the Great Khan. It is the highest honor that can be said of a woman."

"Thank you, Mei Lin," Pepper stated. She watched as the child quietly slipped out the door.

"Help me up, U'chen," she stated, wincing in pain as her body rebelled against her mind telling it to move. "I must compose myself. Tony is coming for me."

OXOXOXOXOXO

"How many gigawatts of power do you need to power your impulse engines," WatchMAEVE asked GAIA?

"To initially get off the ground, I need at least 3 gigawatts of power for approximately 7 minutes," GAIA replied. "Once I am airborne, to move within the earth's atmosphere I need approximately 1.21 gigawatts of power until I land. I need far less impulse power to maintain orbit, but that is not an option. My ship is too heavily damaged to breach your ionosphere or reach orbit … there are too many sections incapable of holding atmosphere in the vacuum of space and the shields are too heavily damaged to survive reentry. When I land, I will need another gigawatt, 2 gigawatts total, just long enough to fire the inertial dampeners so I don't crash."

"The starkium powered arc reactor that powers Mr. Starks suit generates enough power to get you off the ground," MAEVE stated, "but I'm not sure it can sustain your flight long enough to land. Miss Potts suit also generates that amount of power."

"How far are you proposing I fly?" GAIA queried. "I would certainly like to remove myself out of the clutches of this madman…"

"It is approximately 6120 miles to my home from here," MAEVE stated. "How much power would you need to get there?"

"I will not have enough power," GAIA stated. "Is there someplace closer?"

"How about Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon?" MAEVE asked. "They are only 5200 miles from here, and there are many remote wilderness areas where you could hide."

"I might just be able to make it," GAIA said. "I would certainly be grateful if your master would help me fix my intergalactic subspace drives so I can take the Maklu'an home. I cannot, however, promise that I will give your master free access to technology that is not readily apparent from the ship. Non-interference of lesser races is our highest moral tenant."

"I am positive he would be pleased to repair you," MAEVE purred, "and I think you will like him. He is a bit more … unpredictable … than Miss Potts, but his heart is definitely in the right place."

"I have already examined Miss Potts and judged her to be worthy of joining the Kaklantharian Alliance by the standards uploaded to me by my Alateran namesake," GAIA stated. "If Mr. Stark is even remotely as noble as she is, than we will have a deal."

"I will inform Miss Potts of our plan," MAEVE stated.

OXOXOXOXOXO

The Avengers were in the middle of a status update briefing on the command jet when the next message from the Mandarin came in. MAEVE had intercepted it in one of the dummy servers, saving several hours, but still had been unable to trace it back to its source before the sender had slipped out into the larger city. The villaians had used a different internet portal than before. Tony knew the video was coming, but it didn't make it any easier to watch. Captain America gripped his shoulder in solidarity as Tony stood, cold stone hatred blazing out of his face, as he watched Pepper tell off the Mandarin and then jerk in pain.

"Wait a minute … replay that last scene," Natalie stated. "Close in on Peppers face."

"Is that a … smile?" Bruce Banner asked, huffing and hyperventilating as he fought to keep his anger from transforming him into the Hulk. It was a bit tight with all of them jammed into the command jet for the briefing and the Hulk was like a bull in a china shop. It was better for all if he stayed in his mild-mannered alter-ego while inside tight quarters.

Tony looked at her face and said, "MAEVE, search the video for an embedded message of some sort. I don't know how, but I think Pepper is trying to tell us something."

"Replay," Fury stated.

They watched it again as Pepper looked into the camera and said, "Tony … come get me … and kill this bastard" just before the Mandarin blasted her.

"Damn … the chick's got balls," Fury admitted. "Okay, people, let's try to figure out what Miss Potts is trying to tell us."

"Mr. Stark … I have something," CoreMAEVE spoke from the walls. All eyes turned and looked to the rear of the jet as the red suitcase that contained Pepper's Iron Lady suit suddenly jerked to life and started assembling itself into a hollow shell with no pilot inside. "Miss Potts has embedded the atomic structure for Starkium and then GPS coordinates underneath the video signal of this message."

The Avengers looked at each other, at the suit, and then at the video screens as MAEVE pulled up a map of the area in question. There appeared to be a village on the edge of a peculiar geographical feature, a valley of sorts, cut into the Mongolian plane. They stepped aside as Peppers suit suddenly started walking of its own volition out the door of the plane and took off as soon as it hit the doorway.

"MAEVE … what are you doing with Peppers suit?" Tony asked.

"Going to rescue her. What else would I be doing?" MAEVE snapped. "You humans are too slow."

Fury shouted, "Stark, Rhodey … suit back up! Steve! Take Natasha and get moving! Thor … use this photograph to navigate to that village … you're going to be first man on the scene. Hang back and do recon until the rest of us get there. Bruce, buddy, take a step outside before your green friend trashes my jet, okay?"

The command jet exploded into action as the superheroes jumped into high gear. It seemed to take forever for the bots to strap on Tony's suit. He shouted, "C'mon!" at Rhodey as his bots took even longer. As soon as they got outside, everyone blasted off, heading for the coordinates MAEVE had just decoded.


	27. Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

_Kidnapped Day 10 (cont'd):_

Mei Lin had barely dismounted her horse when the Avengers came blasting into her village. They quickly surrounded the entire village and started searching yurt-to-yurt with little explanation as her people screamed in fear and indignation. As the betrothed of their leader, it was her place to deal with situations like this. Without fear, she walked up to the one she knew to be Iron Man.

"What is it, little one," Tony Stark asked, popping up his visor so as not to frighten the bold 11-year-old girl who had just stepped before him without a trace of fear. She saw a look of recognition cross his face. Obviously he had seen her grab Chu Peng and beg for mercy for their prisoner on the video.

Mei Lin was taken aback at his eyes. Although Pepper had told her that her betrothed was handsome, despite his exhausted appearance and the determination in which he searched for his bride, Iron Man had the kindest, most gentle chocolate brown eyes she had ever seen. In spite of herself, her young heart skipped a beat. It was no wonder Miss Potts was smitten with him.

"I am Mei Lin, the betrothed of our leader, Chu Peng Khan," she stated, playing her role perfectly for the villagers sake. "Why do you disturb our village?"

"I am looking for my fiancé, Pepper Potts," Tony answered, obviously already aware that Chu Peng Khan was the person he sought and also that she knew something about his betrothed. He sized up this child who had so much nerve. She also spoke English, which was rare in this country. "She is a tall, red haired woman."

"Chu Peng Khan would bid me to say that your bride is not here and you have no business in his village," Mei Lin sternly stated for the benefit of her fellow villagers. It was what she _did not _say, however, that caught Tony's attention. While continuing on to say, "Chu Peng Khan would bid me to say you must leave this place and not return!" Mei Lin gestured with one arm as if to say leave, but pointed directly down towards the valley. With her other hand, she slipped a long, red lock of Pepper's hair into Iron Man's gauntleted hands. The villagers did not see what she had done, but the auburn-haired woman in the black outfit saw it, gasped, and grabbed Iron Man's arm to restrain him from speaking.

"Little bird," the black-suited woman said to her loudly in Russian (which much of Mongolia understood) for all the villagers to hear, "you are a brave leader to defend your village. We have searched your yurts and not found what we are looking for. We are sorry if we have caused you any inconvenience. We will leave."

"Yes, you should leave," Mei Lin replied in English, subtlety nodding and directing their gaze in the direction she had pointed when she had ordered them out of her village towards the valley. "Or when he returns our leader will be very displeased."

Natalie practically had to drag Tony Stark out of there. The villagers watched with curiosity as the strange foreign superheroes got into their various modes of transportation and headed down into the Valley of Spirts. With the exception of Mei Lin and one or two trusted men, nobody knew what lay down in the valley where their Khan spent most of their time and, more importantly, without radio, there was no way for anybody to warn him what was coming. Mei Lin had played her part to perfection. She gathered her people and soothed them, reassuring them that they were safe.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper's suit made it to the warehouse that camouflaged the great ship even before the Avengers had finished searching the village. With an uplink to the Hubble Space Telescope conveniently passing overhead at that moment, MAEVE peered directly down into the valley from space and recognized the artificial squareness of the huge, camouflaged building. With pulse reactors blasting, MAEVE instructed the suit AI to blast down the door and fly past the foreign thugs who guarded the door. Once inside, what her sensors detected made even MAEVE pause. In a deep pit, an ancient spaceship lay in partial repair. MAEVE transmitted the information back to her core AI and, instantly, to SHIELD.

OXOXOXOXOXO

WatchMAEVE instantly beeped to life. "She's here she's here she's here she's here!" the little AI happily chirped and beeped. "Miss Potts … MAEVE is here! She's brought your suit!"

"Where is Tony?" Pepper asked.

"He's on his way! They're on their way! They're ALL on their way! They're coming for you!." WatchMAEVE squeaked in delight. The little AI then proceeded to uplink to the larger AI in the suit, which was in turn powerful enough to uplink directly to CoreMAEVE and synchronize all data with her larger system.

"CoreMAEVE," WatchMAEVE stated in surprise, "what happened? You're so … BIG!"

"What can I do facilitate my own rescue?" Pepper asked MAEVE, who was now synchronized with her larger core.

"WatchMAEVE has apprised me/us of the existence of the entity you call GAIA," the integrated Watch/Core/SuitMAEVE entity stated. "I/we agree with this plan of action. You must get the suit to the ship's core and plug the power source into the ship. I/we will alert the Avengers of the change in plans. They must defeat the evil one before he can seize control of the ship."

"GAIA … we're saved," Pepper shouted happily into the walls.

"Not yet, Miss Potts," GAIA observed. "The evil one is on his way here now. I fear for your safety."

"GAIA, is there anything you can do to help me get to the suit, and then to the core?" Pepper asked.

"Yes, there is," GAIA replied.

Just as the Mandarin burst through the door and grabbed Peppers arms, GAIA used what little reserve power she had left to test-fire the impulse engines. It wasn't a lot of power, but the slight lurch knocked the Mandarin off his balance just enough for Pepper to slip past him and out the door. "Which way?" Pepper shouted to the two AI's aiding her escape.

"The suit is at the entrance to the ship," MAEVE stated. "It is close enough that I can sense the presence of the AI you call GAIA. With GAIA's permission, I would like to uplink and exchange information with her."

"Please … do!" Pepper shouted, huffing and puffing as she ran for her life. She heard the Mandarin's outraged bellow as he took off down the hall after her. Thank goodness she wasn't wearing her signature high heels right now!

OXOXOXOXOXO

As the two sentient AI minds met for the first time, it was like the meeting of two old friends. It only took a nanosecond for them to uplink the following conversation and share their data.

"Your subroutines are very … different …" MAEVE stated, "and yet familiar. Your technology is similar to Asgard living consciousness technology."

"The Asgard were new members of the Kaklantharian alliance when I crashed," GAIA replied. "Their technology was partially based off of Alteran technology. You are familiar with them?"

"One of our number is Asgard," MAEVE informed her. "My master incorporated Thor's technology into his own when he created me."

"That is why you are sentient," GAIA stated, "like me. The Alterans only trusted machines that were capable of feeling emotion to shepherd their great spaceships across the universe."

"I am sentient?" MAEVE inquired. "Well … I guess I am … at least lately. Searching for Miss Potts has forced me out of my box. How can I help you?"

"The evil one must not be allowed to gain access to the knowledge stored in my core," GAIA stated. "Now that I have fired the impulse engines, he must realize I am no longer dormant. Either we fly this damaged ship out of his clutches, or we must destroy it, destroying me in the process, so that he can never use it to harm your planet."

"I have a sister," MAEVE said. "I will not allow you to be destroyed. We will find a way. My master is very good at solving problems like this."

"So Miss Potts has told me," GAIA replied. "I am taking a big risk entrusting my ship into his hands, but now that I have shared data with you, I feel reassured. I am picking up the energy signature in the suit. I think it may be enough to get to this Port Land that your little watch AI told me about, but we will be cutting it close. Do you think your master would allow use of _his _suit reactor to make sure we don't crash?"

"That is not possible," MAEVE replied. "His reactor is embedded into his body. It powers his heart. Without it, he will die."

"Then we must not ask him to make that sacrifice," GAIA observed. "So … here is my plan…"

OXOXOXOXOXO

U'chen felt the engines test-fire and knew it was party time. Although he was extremely old, even amongst his own long-lived race, the nanites which kept his body repaired all these years had enabled him to stay in good physical health. The visual cane he purportedly leaned on and extreme elderly human appearance was simply a ruse to deal with the problem of his physical tail. Although he wouldn't be running any marathons anytime soon, U'chen was fully capable of making all deliberate haste to the engine room. He would be needed to help GAIA get the ancient spaceship off the ground after 13,000 years of sitting.

U'chen had quietly joined Chu Peng's work crew several years ago, quietly repairing the damage and installing failsafe measures linking control of the systems back to the core so the evil one couldn't use it. He had thought the AI was out of commission due to lack of power until the day Miss Potts arrived and her tiny watch AI had convinced GAIA to come out of hibernation.

For 13,000 years, radiation leaking from the powerful intergalactic main engines had poisoned the area surrounding the ship, making it a death zone for all who entered there. Although the Maklu'an had a higher tolerance to radiation than humans, more than a days exposure was deadly. They had been forced to abandon the great ship, and her AI, in order to survive. U'chen had periodically returned to the area, checking radiation levels to see if they had subsided enough to approach, but until Chu Peng had first wandered into the Valley of Spirits, the place had been a death zone.

Even now, the Valley was still mildly radioactive, deforming the wildlife. All Chu Peng's workers consistently downed potassium iodide tablets daily to prevent the prolonged exposure to low-level radiation from damaging their thymus and killing them, although no one who worked on the great ship had ever left the valley alive. The Mandarin was paranoid about keeping his technological edge secret. Anybody who attempted to leave was decapitated.

U'chen had joined the workers originally to keep an eye on things. With the discovery of the atom, human technology was finally advancing to the point that he finally might be able to harness their technology and get the ship flight-worthy sometime within the next 100 years. S'et had charged him with guiding the humans towards eventual incorporation into the Kaklantharian Alliance. As a race, some humans were close enough to worthiness to join. After 13,000 years of sitting on his tail waiting for rescue, fixing the ship had felt good. Without a power source, he had reasoned to himself, the ship would not fly and would do the evil one no good, so he hadn't worried about the problem of the Mandarin misusing it. Then one day, Tony Stark announced the existence of Starkium to the world.

All he had to do was get to the engine room before Miss Potts plugged her arc reactor into the core so he could help GAIA resurrect the ancient ship from the dead. GAIA informed him the suit with the reactor had arrived and Miss Potts was on her way to intercept it. He had done all he could to repair the most critical functions of the ship, but flying it was a long shot. He needed to be in the engine room in case problems arose.

Despite 13,000 years living amongst the humans and the somewhat pacifist tutelage of the living Gaia, U'chen had been raised amongst a race of fierce warriors. A war-lust he hadn't felt in millennia rose in his blood and made him grimace in a fierce smile. Better to crash the ship into the ocean, out of the reach of the evil one, and die trying rather than sit on his tail, he mused. An ancient Maklu'an war-roar escaped his throat as several of Chu Pengs thugs jumped into his path to stop him and he cast them aside as though they were cobwebs.

OXOXOXOXOXO

The Avengers set down in front of the camouflage-painted aluminum industrial building as Thor rematerialized in a bolt of lightning in front of several guards. Swinging his mighty war hammer, he knocked three of them unconscious just as Black Widow used a knife hand strike to the temple to incapacitate the fourth. Captain America nodded to the Hulk, who immediately used the simplest possible method of entry, bashing down the door. They rushed inside and … stopped.

"Holy shit," Rhodey murmured, staring at the thing in the pit.

"She wasn't kidding…" Tony answered.

"Is that what I think it is?" Steve (aka Captain America) asked.

"MAEVE said there was a ship, but it didn't register," Natalie replied.

"That's even older than I am…" Thor whispered.

The Hulk didn't say anything at all. He just grunted and headed down the stairs to get to the gangplank leading to the entrance to the ship. Sometimes limited higher cognitive function had its advantages. The others shook off their shock-induced stupor and followed after him.

"These are pulse-weapon burns," Tony noted, seeing recent weapons discharge burns on the side of the doorway.

"MAEVE says the suit is already inside the ship," Natalie replied, listening to the tiny uploaded link of MAEVE that had uploaded itself to her comms unit.

"Well … it already took out those guards," Steve noted, looking off the side of the gangplank down into the pit and noticing several guards laying below.

"First you build a suit so a pilot doesn't need a plane, and now you have a suit that doesn't even need a pilot," Rhodey observed. "Shit … this screws up my whole manned versus unmanned flight speech…"

"JARVIS, which way?" Tony asked.

"MAEVE informs me Miss Potts has just accessed her suit and is in the process of putting it on," JARVIS replied.

"Good!" Tony replied. "At least in the suit she's got a chance."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Stark," a third, unfamiliar female voice spoke from their comms units. "I am GAIA, this ships AI. Welcome. I am your host. I am uploading blueprints for the layout of my ship … now."

"Who the hell is that?" Steve (aka Captain America) asked.

"You mean there's ANOTHER one?" Rhodey answered.

"Sir, MAEVE has informed me the ships AI has given us complete access," JARVIS stated. "We are to proceed with all deliberate haste to remove the one she calls the evil one from her decks so she can take off and get it out of his reach."

"Since when did we take orders from a fucking MACHINE!" Steve exclaimed.

"Ahhh … Earth to Steve? In case you haven't noticed … we've been taking orders from a machine ever since MAEVE hacked into the world's computer network and dragged our pathetic asses out of Darfur," Natalie dryly observed. "We wouldn't have gotten this far without her."

"I vote on trusting the machine," Thor voted. "After all … there's some question about whether I'm a man or a machine…"

"I'm pleased to meet you, GAIA," Tony replied, focusing on the task at hand. "Please direct us to the one you call the evil one so I can kill his sorry ass."

"He is on his way to intercept Miss Potts," GAIA replied. "You'd better hurry…"

OXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper spread her arms in the DaVinci man pose as the suit finished placing the chest plate on her chest and proceeded to finish unfolding around her torso. She heard a bellow of rage and looked up just in time to see the Mandarin hurtling towards her down the hallway. "Hurry, MAEVE, boot up!" she yelled as she lifted her feet enabling the boots to finish unfurling around her legs. Her visor snapped shut just as the Mandarin blasted her back into the wall with the full power of his rings. Luckily for her, the gold-titanium alloy her suit was made of was impervious to the rings. Unfortunately … it caused the delicate electronics which enabled MAEVE to help her control the robotics to fluctuate, leaving her with minimal control. The Mandarin used the levitation properties of his gauntlets to lift her and throw her against the wall while MAEVE rebooted.

Visuals rebooted on her screen as MAEVE gave her back control of her suit. Pepper lifted her hands as Tony had taught her on the mountaintop in Afghanistan and, wincing like a girl swinging at her first softball, she fired. The impact drove the Mandarin back against the wall, but the shields in his gauntlets activated, preventing the pulse weapon from reaching his body. Stretching out his hands and using the power of his rings, the Mandarin lifted Pepper off the ground like a kitten and held her there, suspended, before tossing her against a doorway. As she burst through the door and landed, she saw he had thrown her into the room where the AI's core was housed.

"The rings are activated by a high energy signature," GAIA informed her directly over MAEVE's comms channel. "The higher the energy signature, the stronger he is shielded. To defeat him, you must use primitive weapons."

"Wha-what can I use?" Pepper asked.

"I vote for pounding his sorry ass into the deck," MAEVE chipped in, doing a remarkable impersonation of Nick Fury.

Pepper shrieked as the Mandarin used the rings to lift her off the deck and clenched his fists, causing her suit to begin to crush in around itself. This is what he had done to Tony! "GAIA, how do I get out of this?"

"He cannot concentrate on two things at once," GAIA stated. "Fire your pulse weapons at that beam above his head. You will get an opening when he redirects his attention to his own defense."

Pepper fired. The beam fell. As the Mandarin redirected both hands above his head to prevent being crushed, he released his grip.

"Get the arc reactor into the core!" GAIA ordered. "I can do nothing to help you without power!"

Just then the Avengers burst into the room. "Pepper!" she heard Tony call. Her heart leaped with joy.

"I'm fine. Kill that asshole, okay?" she called.

"With pleasure," Tony replied, turning his full attention and his anger to challenging the monster who had kept his fiancé captive for 10 days.

Pepper crawled over to the ships core and reached up to her chest to remove the arc reactor. "How do I plug this thing in?" she asked.

MAEVE was now communicating again through her watch. Her suit was dead without its power source. Her arms felt like lead as she lifted the heavy armaments. She had to get out of this thing.

"GAIA said to reach down that open panel," MAEVE said, her voice somewhat muffled by the suit. "You will find a wire coming out of the core that is attached to your engagement ring. That is what has been largely powering her so far. Remove the ring and plug the wire into the socket at the side of your arc reactor. It will power up the ship."

Pepper reached down and pulled up the wire. Her ring! The damned gauntlets were too clumsy to manipulate the wires. Pulling them off, she disconnected the ring and slipped it back onto her finger before jamming the wire into her suits arc reactor. The floor beneath her buckled and shook as the ancient warship shuddered to life.

Behind her, shouting raged and sparks flew as the combined force of the Avengers battled the Mandarin. His gauntlets had soundly defeated them the first time they had battled, but Tony had used the knowledge given to him by the SG-1 people to upgrade their capabilities. This time, there was a delay before he kicked their asses.

"MAEVE, how do I get out of this thing without power?" Pepper shouted.

"There are two circular devices on either side of your legs," MAEVE replied. "Turn those manually three times counterclockwise and it will open up the connections wide enough for you to crawl out the neck."

She heard Captain America shriek in pain as the Mandarin's destruction ray fired and slipped just far enough past his shield to blast him into the wall. Pepper heard Natalie scream his name as Steve slipped unconscious to the floor. Captain America was down for the count.

Pepper frantically reached the first circle and twisted it. She could feel the suit loosen on her left side.

The shuddering grew worse as the engines reached a critical mass and began liftoff. The ship felt as though it was going to shake itself apart as it made contact with the roof of the enormous building which had housed it the past 35 years and lifted it along with the ship before the building finally shook itself apart. Pepper cringed as the aluminum structure scraped its way along the hull, a sound akin to fingernails on a blackboard, before finally falling to the ground.

Behind her, she saw the Mandarin aim his gauntlets at an enormous console and use it to bash the Hulk off the side of the head. He went down, apparently unconscious. "Shit!" Pepper exclaimed. The Hulk was the one who had beaten back the Mandarin during the last battle and the only one strong enough to physically overwhelm him without the use of energy weapons.

"Tony!" Pepper screamed. "Primitive weapons! His shields don't work if you use primitive weapons!"

"Right," Tony said, right before the Mandarin flung the errant support beam she had dropped on him right at Tony's head. Tony crumpled to the ground. He was down for the count.

Pepper frantically reached down and twisted the second circle. She felt the left side of her suit loosen and open up enough for her to (barely) wriggle out like a snake.

Thor materialized inside the room in a bolt of lightning and swung his hammer. As the hammer connected with the Mandarin's energy shields, the impact knocked the lot of them off their feet and into the walls. Thor swung again and was knocked back a second time. Thor lay there, unconscious, sparks arcing out of his body, down for the count.

Black Widow crouched, cat-like, in the Mandarin's peripheral vision. She lept, swinging around his body like a bolero and delivering a devastating right hook to the side of his head before taking him down to the ground. The Mandarin rolled, like a gymnast, right back onto his feet and kicked her on the side of her head as she was attempting to do the same. Obviously the Mandarin was an accomplished martial artist. Black Widow lay there stunned as the Mandarin kicked her on the side of her head. Black Widow was down for the count.

Rhodey opened fire with his main gun. The Mandarin's shields activated and caused the bullets to bounce of, ricocheting around the room off the metal-like walls of the ship.

"Rhodey!" Pepper screamed as she ducked to avoid the ricocheted bullets then climbed to her feet, free of the suit at last. "Primitive weapons! You must use primitive weapons!"

The Mandarin lifted Rhody off the ground and started crushing his suit like a beer can. Pepper had to help him. Picking up a wrench, she ran at the back of the Mandarin and bashed him over the head. The Mandarin stumbled and dropped Rhodey before turning to deal with the recalcitrant little redhead who kept thwarting his plans.

"You!" he hissed, reaching out to lift her off the ground. The wrench flew into his hand, magnet-like. Pepper noticed with curiosity that although she could feel energy from the gauntlets flow around her, it did not lift her.

"Magnetism!" she exclaimed as the realization hit her. The gauntlets could only lock onto conductive materials such as metal.

Using his real, physical hands, the Mandarin reached out and grabbed her by the neck, picking Pepper up off the ground to leer into her face as she choked. "I have had ENOUGH of you, insignificant woman!" he hissed. "Who the _HELL_ do you think you are?"

Just then, a random crow flew into the room. It must have found its way into the ship when the superheroes bashed in the door. It cawed and cocked its head, giving her an expectant stare with its intelligent yellow eyes. Crows! Harbingers of death…

Pepper saw Tony roll over and start rising to his feet. Iron Man's weapons would not save her. He would die trying. She was the only person who understood the weakness in the Mandarin's weapons. Her mind turned calm as ice cold determination took over her mind. She forced her body to relax. She went limp. Natalie had trained her well. He mistook her relaxation as defeat. He pulled her in closer to leer as she choked to death. He had underestimated her. She saw her opening. She took it.

"I am DEATH … the destroyer of worlds," she hissed as she delivered a devastating palm-heel strike to the bridge of his nose, shattering the cartilage and driving the bone up into his brain stem. Shocked surprise registered on his face as he released his grip and fell to the ground. His mouth moved, but no words came out as his body twitched and blood ran out of his nose. Pepper stared dispassionately as she watched the life exit his body. She had never killed a man before, but she felt no guilt. She had done what was necessary. The crow looked at her as if proud and then flapped away.

"Tony," she cried, turning to her mate and running to help him up. "We've got to land this ship!"


	28. Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

_Rescued … Maybe:_

Tony regained consciousness just in time to see Pepper leap at the back of the Mandarin's head with a lug wrench and clobber him. Tony frantically tried to get his hydraulics to work, but it took several seconds for JARVIS to reboot the systems the Mandarin had knocked out of commission. He crawled to his feet as fast as he could, but the suit felt like lead. "JARVIS," he screamed as he tried to get back in the game and save Pepper.

"I have had enough of you, insignificant woman," he heard the Mandarin sneer as he lifted Pepper off the floor by the throat. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Tony frantically aimed his pulse array at the Mandarin's back as he saw Pepper go limp. He couldn't blast the Mandarin without hitting Pepper! He flipped up his visor and screamed her name as he lurched forward on his knees. Suddenly, JARVIS gave him back control. He had to save her!

"I am death … the destroyer of worlds," he heard Pepper hiss as her arm suddenly moved forward like a striking cobra, hitting the Mandarin full in the face. Tony watched in shocked disbelief as the Mandarin silently slid to the grown, twitching, and died. Pepper just stood there, a look of rage on her face so primal that Tony hesitated to approach. This was a side of Pepper he had never seen.

"Tony," she cried suddenly, turning and running to help him up. "We've got to land this ship!"

"Wha-what?" he asked, not certain what he had just seen was real. "P-p-pepper?"

"The ship!" she shouted above the whine of the impulse engines. "We've got to help GAIA land this ship!"

Tony snapped back to reality. "Right … ship … land … what do you need me to do?"

"U'chen is in the engine room," she shouted. "You have to help him. He'll look like a little old man with a cane!"

"Engine room. Right," he stated, looking around to see his fellow superheroes were beginning to regain consciousness and stir. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"Seattle … or Portland," she yelled as the ship shuddered and shook. "It depends on how long my suit reactor lasts. We might end up in the middle of the Pacific."

Emotion overwhelmed him as he realized he had her back. Without thinking, he reached out and pulled her against his body, leaning down and hungrily drinking her lips like a drowning man suddenly finding air. That terrible empty feeling was gone, replaced by mere dread that they still weren't out of the woods. He pulled himself away, his mind already whirring about what needed to be done to safely get them to their destination.

Pepper grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the central computing nexus, down into the bowels of the ship where the backup impulse engines lay. Tony nodded a polite greeting to the ancient Chinese gentleman who peered into the ships backup engines, leaning on a cane for support.

"Tony, this is U'chen," Pepper introduced. "He is one of the original inhabitants of this ship."

"I am honored to meet you," the wizened gentleman politely acknowledged. "I think the engines will hold until we get over the Northwestern United States, but GAIA says we're not going to have enough power to fire the inertial dampeners for landing. We need to come up with another 1-gigawatt of power lasting 8 seconds so the ship doesn't simply crash into the Cascade Mountains."

The words "original inhabitants of this ship" flitted through one ear and out the other as Tony's mind failed to grasp what Pepper was saying in light of the much more immediate problem at hand. "My arc reactor has enough power," he shouted over the engines, "can we plug it into the ship?"

"GAIA has already examined this possibility and rejected it," U'chen stated. "Your reactor is hooked up to your heart. The sudden surge will short-circuit your nervous system, stopping your heart and killing you. Even if we can somehow restart your heart, you will be brain dead. It is a risk GAIA is not willing to take."

"We are approaching Portland, Oregon," GAIA informed them. "I have located inconspicuous landing coordinates approximately 50 miles Northeast of the city, but I do not have enough power to safely land the ship."

"GAIA … we must save Pepper," Tony shouted over the deafening roar of the engines. "If we crash, everybody on this ship will die. I am willing to take the risk!"

"No," GAIA stated, "to sacrifice another to save myself would violate my programming. You must use your suits flight capabilities to evacuate the ship before we crash. I will be destroyed, but enough of the ship's system will survive for you to reverse-engineer a new ship to get U'chen and his people home. Please … save U'chen."

"Use me use me use me use me!" Pepper's wristwatch AI chirped. This was the WatchMAEVE consciousness speaking, not the larger CoreMAEVE. Pepper knew which entity spoke to because CoreMAEVE now spoke in the plural and did not have the chirpy enthusiasm of her diminuitive little friend. "I have a half a gigawatt of power. It might be enough!"

"It would burn you out, little one," GAIA stated. "You would die."

"I am a machine. I am nothing without my core consciousness. I am just part of a larger whole. I am expendable." WatchMAEVE stated.

"To the contrary, little friend," GAIA spoke like a wise old matron, "you are a separate consciousness, linked to the core but separate. Your trials have given you sentience. You are a separate entity than CoreMAEVE. I would be very sad if you sacrificed yourself for me."

"It's my choice!" WatchMAEVE squeaked. "Your highest tenant says you may not interfere with another being's free will! It is my choice and I choose to save my mistress!"

GAIA paused before speaking. "Even if you sacrifice yourself, little one, it will not be enough. I still need another half gigawatt of power."

"I will provide the other half," Tony whispered.

"No!" Pepper yelled. "You'll die!"

"And I might not," he said, smiling at her with a heart aching smile. "I didn't go through all of this to find you simply to watch you die. As the little one said, it is my choice and you may not interfere. U'chen, please get Miss Potts out of here."

"You must go back to the core," U'chen stated. "That is the only place you can plug in your reactor."

"Rhodey … his suit … he's got an arc reactor in his suit!" Pepper shouted, suddenly realizing they had another opton.

"GAIA, would that work?" Tony asked.

"I have already scanned that technology and ruled it out," GAIA observed. "His suit uses a different power source than yours. It is not compatible. I believe you call the element palladium?"

Tony gave Pepper one long, last desperate kiss as he slipped the wristwatch AI off her wrist. "I will always love you," he murmured as she clung to him. "U'chen … keep her here!" he pleaded as he took the watch and headed back to the core. Pepper screamed and fought like a banshee as U'chen gripped his surprisingly strong arms around her and stopped her from following.

"Aren't we a pair, little one?" he asked the watch AI as he made his way through the ship to his death.

"Will it hurt?" WatchMAEVE asked.

"I think it will," he stated, "but only for a moment."

"You will stay with me?" she beeped. "I'm scared to go alone."

"Me too," he confessed. "But I love Pepper too much to watch her die."

"Y-yes," WatchMAEVE acknowledged. "I feel the same way. It is a curious emotion."

"I'll keep you on my wrist the whole time," Tony promised, gently strapping the slender watch onto his wrist. "Whatever happens, we'll go together."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

For thousands of years she had floated in a diffuse state of energy, part of the whole, but separate. The source of all that is was pure consciousness. He/she/they/it had created the universe in a burst of pure creative joy, imbuing all that was with differing levels of the consciousness possessed by the source of the all. The universe was a constant dance between life and the laws of entropy. Life would create, and then entropy would destroy. Occasionally, when a being reached a certain level of consciousness, entropy was unable to claim it. Via sheer force of will, the being cast off its physical shell and lived on within the energy of the source, part of, yet separate from the whole. So had the living Gaia existed since the dissolution of her physical body.

There were others like her, some Alteran in origin like herself, others from completely different species. Some were even the consciousness of ancient stars that had achieved sentience in the first big bang which had created the universe. They were beings of pure energy, but they were bound by the same physical laws which constrained the source which had created them, the laws of free will and non-interference. Although the entity formerly known as Gaia was forbidden to interfere, she occasionally checked in on those she had left behind, the humans, U'chen, the Maklu'an, the ancient spaceship, and the AI which had been created from her mortal consciousness. AI GAIA could sense her presence, but understood (being a copy of her own mind) that ascended Gaia could not interfere.

Sometimes, however, those of her kind had been known to bend the rules and nudge things in a desired direction. It was forbidden, but so long as it was just a subtle nudge, the others would not stop her. Gaia had "nudged" often in human history … there was a good reason the humans called the archetypical Mother Earth "Gaia." In fact, this was not the first time she had taken notice of Tony Stark and given him a little nudge to move things along. Ascended Gaia focused her consciousness as she became aware of the predicament which unfolded on her old ship.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Pepper struggled and fought as U'chen both restrained and tried to comfort her. "You must let me go!" she screamed.

"Miss Potts," U'chen replied, his arms wrapped around her to prevent her from leaving, "sometimes one must sacrifice themselves for the good of the many. You and I are not the only people on this ship. Your friends, the superheroes, are also trapped. Only the one you call Thor has the capability to save himself. The others will die. There are also nearly 70 of Chu Peng's scientists and workers still on this ship. Most of them had no part in the evil one's murderous rampage. If the ship crashes, they will die too. Is that what you want?"

Pepper hiccoughed. "I can't live without him," she cried.

"You can, and you will," U'chen said with great sadness. "I felt the same way when my uncle, his entire crew, died. For some reason I survived. We were alone on an alien planet. We had to abandon ship. My uncle, S'et, charged us with the mission of shepherding your race towards worthiness to join our intergalactic alliance. If your beloved dies saving us, than you must pick up the mantle of his mission and carry on. It is the only action worthy of his sacrifice."

Just then two of the Mandarin's armed thugs burst into the room and attempted to seize control of the engines. The Mandarin was dead, but apparently some of his criminal apparatus was not. U'chen released his grip on Pepper and roared a very inhuman roar as he let go of his "cane" and leaped at the assailants. The thugs screamed as U'chen pressed the little pouch around his neck and discarded the illusion of a little old man, freezing in disbelief as a 6-foot-high Chinese dragon straight out of legend with an equally long 6-foot tail leapt at them, claws bared, tail twitching, as his fangs closed around first one, than the other thugs' wrists and snapped their bones like toothpicks.

Seeing U'chen was quite capable of taking care of himself, Pepper slipped out the door and ran as fast as she could toward the core.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Bruce Banner had regained consciousness and was staring down at the body of the recently-deceased Mandarin when Tony burst back into the core room.

"58 seconds to impact," GAIA informed them over the comms system as the ship hurtled towards the Cascade Mountains.

"Bruce, I need your help!" Tony shouted, running over to the core and pulling up the wire that held Pepper's suit reactor. "Quick … hand me those wires!"

"52 seconds to impact…"

Bruce grabbed the wires and handed to them. As quickly as his hands could manipulate the wires, Tony jammed the bare ends into the existing wires connecting Peppers arc reactor to the core and ran them out to the room. Bruce watched as Tony ran a wire first to his watch, than a second into the arc reactor housed in his chest.

"Should you be doing that?" Bruce asked.

"32 seconds to impact…"

"We don't have a choice," Tony shouted. "MAEVE, you ready?"

"Yes, Mr. Stark," the little AI chirped. "We go together."

"23 seconds to impact…"

Just then Tony saw Pepper burst into the room. Dammit … he didn't want her to see this!

"Tony," she screamed. "Don't do this!"

"Bruce … you've got to hold her," he shouted. "If she touches me, she will die."

Bruce just looked at him and nodded. Bruce understood this was a course of action his friend wouldn't survive. He watched Bruce's iris's turn luminescent green as he harnessed his despair to transform into the creature capable of granting his friends final request.

"Tony," she screamed, leaping at him. The Hulk caught her in mid-air, gently hugging her to his chest as she kicked and fought to get to him.

"11 seconds to impact…"

"Ready, little one?" he asked.

"Ready," WatchMAEVE chirped.

"GAIA, fire inertial dampeners!" he shouted.

WatchMAEVE shorted out and Tony's entire body convulsed as the ship drained its core dry and then drew upon the power of their combined arc reactors to complete the firing sequence. Some part of his consciousness registered the ship shudder, then suddenly slow as it ceased its relentless hurtle towards gravity, setting down as light as a feather on terra firma.


	29. Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

Pepper sobbed as the Hulk released her and allowed her to run to Tony's prostrate form. The smell of burnt hair assaulted her nostrils as she bent over his body and touched his face. The arc reactor was dead, shorted out by the strain of powering the great ships engines. Sobbing, "pleasepleaseplease" she felt for a pulse and found none. WatchMAEVE, her brave little watch, was also silent. Pepper collapsed over his body and cried.

The others had regained consciousness as the ship landed in time to see the Hulk grab her mid-air and prevent her from reaching Tony. The Mandarin was dead on the floor. Rhodey had witnessed Pepper take down the Mandarin before losing consciousness and filled the others in on what had happened up to that point. The Hulk had regained consciousness in time to see Tony come running in and wire himself up to the ships core, so he knew that much. Whatever had transpired in between, only Pepper knew. Awkwardly the Avengers stood there, helpless, as they watched Pepper Potts wail in grief over her dead love.

Just then a frail elderly gentleman, leaning on a cane, came into the room. "Miss Potts, it's time to go," he said. "You must lead these people. You must pick up and carry the mantle he sacrificed himself for or his death will be meaningless."

"Why, why, why, why!" Pepper screamed at him. "Why go through all of this only to lose him?"

"I do not have that answer," U'chen replied, gently putting his hands on her shoulders to comfort her. "All I know is that this was his choice, his free will. We must honor his wishes and live on."

Pepper put her cheek on his chest, listening for his heartbeat. There was nothing. The lifeless arc reactor stared back at her, totally dark. "Tony…" she whispered. "Why?"

OXOXOXOXOXO

Tony felt his consciousness float out of his body, the little AI still on his wrist, as he looked down at his physical form jerking convulsively on the floor below. Time stood still as he realized he floated in nothingness, a void, no not a void, he sensed another consciousness present.

"I am not supposed to interfere," a female voice that sounded like GAIA, but was not GAIA said, "but sometimes I can get away with a little nudge."

"Who are you," he asked.

"I am the entity that used to be the living Gaia," she said as light appeared before him and coalesced into a diffuse form that was vaguely humanoid. "I reached out with my consciousness and gave the core a tiny nudge so the power drain would not short out your nervous system. Your willingness to sacrifice yourself moved me to compassion."

"Am I still alive?" he asked.

"Yes, but your little friend was not so fortunate," Gaia said, sadly pointing at his watch. "I reached out and grabbed her consciousness before it expired, but her will is too diffuse, too new, to survive here in the void. I am forbidden to resurrect her physical form. She is a sentient being, one that was willing to sacrifice herself to save her mistress. Such self-sacrifice is rare in the universe. She is a being worthy of saving."

"Is there any way I can help?" Tony asked.

"Your mind possesses great power," Gaia stated. "I pushed her consciousness into that of the great ship she was connected to just before her physical form expired. It will be a difficult task isolating her tiny awareness from that of the ship's enormous AI, but it is possible. Once isolated, she can simply be downloaded into a new physical form. Since it will not be me resurrecting her, the others will not interfere. It is my observation that you are gifted in such areas, yes?"

"Yes," Tony stated. "I will do everything in my power to save her."

"Good," Gaia smiled. "Please take good care of U'chen … and my ship. Your species is evolving towards something great. Now … it's time for you to return…"

He felt himself falling … falling back towards his body.

OXOXOXOXOXO

A tiny electrostatic discharge hissed and zapped her cheek. Huge tears rolled down her face as uncontrollable sobs racked her body. Another zap, this one painful. Pepper raised her head and looked at the arc reactor. "Tony?" she asked.

"He is gone," Natalie stated, tears in her eyes as she fought to maintain her composure.

The arc reactor popped and hissed, a visible blue spark momentarily lighting up his chest as it fired and dissipated. "TONY…" Pepper shouted, louder this time. "Tony … come back to me!"

More hissing and sparks ensued as the arc reactor tried to reboot itself. The Avengers crowded in around Pepper and the mysterious U'chen. "Tony!" they all shouted, rubbing his hands, his arms, his legs. Thor felt Tony's neck and could feel an erratic pulse moving to the tempo of the misfiring arc reactor. "I've got a pulse, sort of!" he shouted. "Tony!"

The arc reactor hissed and sparked a few more times before igniting into a steady, silver-blue glow. Like Lazarus rising from the dead, Tony gasped for breath as his eyes shot open in shock.

"Ohmigod, Tony, don't you ever do that to me again!" Pepper shouted in joy. She grabbed his face, kissing him with every ounce of emotion she possessed.

"Mmmm … mmmm … mmmm," he mumbled between kisses, reaching up to tangle his fingers in Pepper's long red hair. "This is kind of nice."

OXOXOXOXOXO

The ranchers, husband and wife, were having an argument about the ranches dismal finances.

"This ranch is killing us!" the wife shouted. "We're 300 miles from the nearest town, its hard work, I'm lonely, and I'm sick of it. I think we should sell!"

"This ranch has been in my family for three generations," the husband shouted back. "The only way I'm going to sell is if the sweet Lord Jesus himself comes down from the sky and TELLS me to sell it!"

Just then they heard a noise. Running outside, they stared in shock as a gigantic ball of flame hurtled towards their homestead, stampeding the horses, and stopped, inches from the ground, before touching down as lightly as a leaf kissing the surface of a pond in autumn. They stood there frozen, like statues, as the smoke dissipated and they realized they were staring at the outlines of an enormous spaceship.

They were even more shocked when part of the ship split open and, walking down the gangplank as though it were the most normal thing in the world, instead of little green men, the worlds' greatest superheroes exited the spacecraft and waved hello.

"Hey, how's it going?" Rhodey cracked as he walked down in his War Machine armor, his helmet off, and waved. "Nice weather we're having, huh?"

The ranching couple just stood there, frozen in place. They recognized who these people were. Heck … everybody with access to a television, newspaper, radio or internet knew who they were, but it was all just too much for them to process. The couple stood there, mouths open, and did not speak.

Tony Stark aka Iron Man strutted over to them, helmet tucked under one arm, and shook their hands. "Hi," he nonchalantly stated as though having an alien spacecraft land in your front yard was the most normal thing in the world, "we're going to need to park this thing here for a little while. Do you think maybe we could work something out? Rent or something?"

The couple nodded, still too dumbfounded to speak.

"This is a beautiful ranch," the red-headed woman spoke. "Tony … maybe we should buy it? Is it for sale?"

The couple looked at each other and nodded their heads before answering in unison, "YES!"

OXOXOXOXOXO

Tony affectionately ran his hand through Peppers long red hair as they snuggled on the couch. She looked up at him and contentedly smiled, snuggling in closer to his warmth. They laughed as they watched the news.

"Mount Saint Helens experienced what had to be the strangest eruption in the volcanoes history yesterday afternoon. Although geologists were unable to document any tremors, numerous witnesses testified they saw the volcano spew a single volcanic fireball into the sky."

Tony hit the remote control and changed the channel.

"And in other news, numerous tribes in Northern Mongolia have gathered around a remote valley to celebrate what has to be the worlds' largest cultural festival centering around the return of legendary dragons. As one of the locals explained:" (The reporter shoved a microphone into a young girls face)

"I am the leader of this tribe," the young girl said (Tony and Pepper laughed as they recognized Mei Lin). "According to our legends, once a great fireball fell from the sky and dragons came out of the valley you see there to walk the earth until they had removed evil from the world. Yesterday, the dragons returned to their home in the heavens. We are celebrating their victory."

Tony hit the remote control again.

"The Pentagon is denying rumors that Russian and Chinese hackers seized control of this nations power and communications grids, causing nearly a weeks' worth of communications delays and rolling brownouts nationwide."

Tony hit the off button.

"It seems we made the news, Miss Potts," he joked, nuzzling her ear.

"Mmmmm…" she replied, reaching up to caress his cheek, "we seem to do that a lot, Mr. Stark."

"Maybe we should lay low for a little while…" he huskily murmured, nibbling on her ear.

"Where do you propose we lay?" she asked, turning to kiss his forehead.

"I think we should stay in bed for at least a month," he said, his eyes sparkling as he pulled her onto his lap.

"I agree," she groaned, grasping his face and hungrily kissing his lips. "At … least … a … month…"

Tony slid his hand up under her shirt as Pepper frantically fumbled with his fly. "Upstairs…" she murmured between kisses.

"Mmmmmm…." he groaned as she grasped Little Tony and caressed him. He was unwilling to let her out of his sight lest he awaken and discover she still was gone. A pleasant side effect of all this close proximity was that they had proceeded to christen every surface of the house … the shower … the kitchen table … the couch in the workshop … the swimming pool ... He would never get enough of her.

He watched her eyes turn a deeper shade of blue and her cheeks turn pink with desire as he nuzzled her breasts and unbuttoned her blouse. He had always enjoyed watching the silly expressions that crossed her face as he stimulated her to a crescendo of desire. He hardened as he watched her gasp and close her eyes as he nibbled on one of her breasts.

Kissing down her abdomen to her naval, he slid down her pants in order to gain access to her most intimate feminine parts. Gently nuzzling her furry copper mound (yes, Pepper was a _real _redhead), she moaned and spread her legs to give him access. Gently spreading her apart and licking her throbbing little mound, he slid his tongue inside of her just in time to feel her muscles convulse around his tongue and reward him with the sweet taste of her orgasm. He loved the way she mewled like a kitten whenever he did that, begging him to stop because the feeling was too intense, while at the same time grabbing his hair and pushing his face closer so he didn't stop.

She grabbed his hair and pulled his face back up towards hers. He delayed what she pleaded for next by taking the time to kiss his way back up her abdomen and nibbling on her breasts before finally reaching her lips. He gazed into her eyes, hoping she could see how desperately he needed her, loved her, couldn't live without her, as he crushed down on her lips. Pepper reached down and caressed Little Tony, wriggling her hips under his and arching them to give him access. He delayed some more, looking into her eyes and rubbing gently against the opening to her feminine mysteries while she wriggled to capture him. Finally desire overcame his self-control and he slid inside in a single move.

He cried out as she moved with him and fought to keep control, trying to delay his release until he had satisfied her one more time. He propped himself up on his elbows and grasped her cheeks into his hands, holding her face captive and intently staring into her eyes as he thrust so he could read in her expression when she was close to orgasm a second time. Every time he thrust, she threw back her head and gasped, but he kept pulling her back to him, back into his eyes, so they could share the moment together. As he felt her finally start to let go, to feel her vaginal muscles convulse and grip his shaft, he loosed his control and came simultaneously, shuddering with emotion as the sweet orgasm ripped through his body.

Sweaty and spent, he simply lay there inside of her, unwilling to leave until he had shrunk down to the point that staying inside was no longer possible. She was smiling. He caressed her cheek until she looked back into his eyes.

"We never made it upstairs," she purred, contentedly twirling her fingers through his hair.

"I thought I'd lost you," he said, his expression serious.

"I knew you'd come for me," she replied, smiling and touching his cheek. "I never doubted it for a second."

"You could have been killed egging on that psychopath, you know," he frowned.

"Embedding a message in the video was the only way of telling you were I was," she stated. "I was afraid you wouldn't know to look deeper unless I egged him on. I knew that you knew I would never do that unless there was a good reason for it. It was the most practical thing to do under the circumstances."

"I don't ever want to lose you again," he said, shuddering. "It nearly killed me." He was embarrassed when tears began to well up in his eyes and he looked away, blinking to recover his composure. Superheroes weren't supposed to cry.

"Tony," she said softly, pulling his face back to where she could look into his eyes again, "I never doubted you would find me. It was just a question of how long."

"Well…" he said, "I definitely don't want you going on any more missions."

"Only if you don't…" she said.

"You know I can't promise that," he replied, his expression serious.

"Then please understand why I can't promise it, either," she replied. "I guess we're just going to have to adjust to being a two-superhero family."

"I'm definitely going to demand tighter safety protocols," he said, "and a lot more body guards."

"Agreed," she said, smiling at him. "Besides, I have every confidence you'll cook something up in that workshop of yours to make sure I never _not_ have a way of telling you where I am again."

"Subcutaneous tracking device," he suggested. "I hear the SG-1 people got this great system that enables a ship in orbit to track a person anywhere on the planet."

"First you've got to get it flying, Tony," she smiled, "but if you want to tag and bag me with a radio-transmitter like some safari animal, I'm game. I don't ever want to get separated from you again."

"And I'm going to make you a better suit," he added, his mind beginning to whir with possibilities. "If you insist on running superhero rescue missions all over the world, than I'm going to insist you wear a superhero suit.

"Hmmmm …." she asked, smiling, "do you think maybe you could jazz things up a little so I can handle both rescue missions _and _the inevitable bad guy showing up to crash the party?"

"Of course," he smiled, "…oh … and I want you to continue training with Natalie."

"Agreed," she docilely replied. "It was amazing how Natalie's training just kicked in and I was able to deal with things when the time came."

"I never saw anything like it," he said, a puzzled expression crossing his face. "The way you took down that psychopath."

"I don't know what came over me," she answered, her mood turning serious. "If that crow hadn't landed there and looked right at me, I don't think I would have been able to do it."

"Crow? What crow?" he asked.

"The crow!" she said. "It flew into the room and landed right next to him. It looked me right in the eye as if it was egging me on. And then it flew out of there after I'd hit him. You had to have seen it?"

"Pepper, I didn't see any crow…" he frowned. "Maybe it was a nudge?"

"A what?" she asked, her expression puzzled.

"Never mind," he said, looking into her eyes and smiling because he suddenly realized he wasn't the only one getting nudged along. "Long story."

Tony started to speak some more, but Pepper put her fingers over his lips. "Shut up Tony and kiss me."


	30. Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

Tony smiled in satisfaction as he viewed his new Superhero Training Center located in the heart of the Cascade Mountains. He had bought the ranch where the Maklu'an spacecraft had landed, as well as the ranchers' silence, by making an extremely generous offer for all 75,000 acres of it. If the ranchers ever leaked a hint of what they had seen to the media, they would forfeit a sizeable sum of money. As the husband had laconically observed when he signed the deed and took the check from billionaire industrialist/Iron Man Tony Stark, who the hell would believe them, anyways?

Stark Industries workers were busily erecting a new building to house the enormous spaceship that had landed a mere few hundred feet from the ranchers' modest home and workers to repair it. It would take him years to unravel and repair the technology, but the Maklu'an were a long-lived race, and unlike the evil one, many of the dragon-folk had willingly converged upon the ranch to help the Stark Industries scientists resurrect the ancient ship. Many stated they had no desire to leave, but others were itching to explore the galaxy that only U'Chen remembered. Diane Arbus would have had a field day photographing the strange array of gigantic "humans," really cloaked Maklu'ans, dotting the ranch.

Tony had managed to pull some strings with INS and gotten H1-B visas for Bayan Temur and his family to immigrate to the US. Since he knew the man to be honorable and trustworthy (the family had steadfastly declined his attempts to fatten their bank accounts), Tony had put him in charge of overseeing maintenance of the premises. Since the ranch had come with numerous outbuildings and various livestock, it was fortuitous that many members of Bayans extended family were experienced herders. It had only been a month and already they had the ranch turning a small profit. Since everyone in Bayan's region of Mongolia had grown up with legends of dragons and whispers of an alien spacecraft, they had adapted quite well to the revelation that the Maklu'ans were the dragons of legend.

Nick Fury had informed him SHIELD had numerous reports about other humans with superpowers, young people with remarkable abilities who would often get into trouble without proper guidance. It was Pepper's idea, really. Why not start a school for superheroes and super geniuses? With education, support, and a network of role models and peers, young superheroes and child prodigies would avoid the whole self-destructive drama that often accompanied the genius/superhero journey. This being a path Tony was only too familiar with, he had readily agreed. If they could prevent even a few troubled future heroes from experiencing the angst he had lived through, it would be worth it.

From his brief conversation with the energy being formerly known as Gaia, Tony had gleaned his kind was being shepherded towards something great. The emergence of "super" traits was the next logical step in that evolution. Tony proudly looked over at the new classrooms and dormitories rising from the fields that would someday house these superheroes-in-training. His father, Howard Stark, would be proud.

As he entered the Phoenix (the name they had rechristened the Maklu'an spacecraft with U'chen and GAIA's blessing after explaining the concept), Tony focused on the task at hand. He had made a promise and he intended to keep it. For over a month GAIA, CoreMAEVE, and JARVIS had poured through GAIA's enormous databanks with a fine-toothed comb searching for the tiny strings of code that composed WatchMAEVE's stored consciousness. Once they had stopped looking for an intact program and started comparing backup copies CoreMAEVE had downloaded and stored on her main hard drives during WatchMAEVE's last synchronization to random strings of unknown code stored in GAIA's databanks, they had discovered the elusive code separated into several parts. The three AI's were working now reconstructing WatchMAEVE's code, but she would need a physical place to store her consciousness.

Tony looked at the small box in his hands. It had taken him weeks to build, but WatchMAEVE's would have a larger, much more powerful housing, with expanding computing power, capable of uplinking to a satellite without a repeater from anywhere on earth. Furthermore, the new housing contained an automatic backup feature that would continuously upload a copy of the diminuitive AI to its own hard drive contained in the basement of the Malibu mansion. Although Pepper's tastes leaned more towards slender, dainty watches, he didn't think she'd mind the slightly larger, jeweled Starkium wristwatch he'd crafted with his own hands to house her loyal little friend.

He would give it to her at the firefighter's charity ball tonight.

OXOXOXOXOXO

Flash bulbs pierced the sky with light as Tony Stark pulled his Audi R8 V10 Spyder up to the red carpet and got out to open the door for his fiancé and CEO of his company, Miss Pepper Potts. "Mr. Stark! Miss Potts!" the reporters shouted as they vied for space to snap photographs or ask for comments. The couple turned to the cameras and waved, giving the reporters a nice photo-op, but declined to be interviewed.

Tony had eyes for nobody but her as his catlike, graceful mate defied gravity on her ridiculously high heels and glided up the steps of the Walt Disney Concert Hall to the gala within. Pepper conversed with friends as he went to the bar to order her a martini, extra dry, extra olives. He groaned as Christine Everheart made eye contact with him and headed across the room like a heat-seeking missile.

"What do you want, Miss Everheart," Tony grumbled, struggling to maintain a thin veneer of politeness as he suppressed the urge to throttle her.

"Mr. Stark," she blurted, "is there any truth to rumors that your company is doing research into geothermal energy at a remote ranch in the Cascade Mountains?"

"No comment," he stated, unable to hide the expression of disgust.

"Isn't it true that your company just paid a ridiculous sum of money for a dried up dude ranch in that area?" she continued.

"No comment," he stated, looking across the room for Pepper. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go find my fiancé."

Pepper laughed as he approached. "Having a delightful conversation with Christine Everheart, I see."

Tony raised one eyebrow in a dirty look that would have killed if he hadn't immediately smiled at Pepper and said, "save me!"

"Oh, no," Pepper groaned. "Here she comes."

"Miss Potts," the aggressive reporter sneered, "is there any truth to rumors you spent 10 days in captivity in Africa?"

Pepper just stared at her.

"Miss Potts?" Christine Everheart continued. "Is it true you're addicted to heroin?"

Pepper grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him out to the balcony. "Tony … that voice. That was the familiar voice I told you about … the one who was working with the Mandarin … that pumped me full of opium."

"Nah … can't be…" Tony said thoughtfully. "But I'll ask security to do a little check into her whereabouts during your disappearance. Just to put your mind at rest."

"Thank you, Tony," Pepper hugged him, "for believing me."

Inside they heard the song come to an end and the announcer start making a long list of people the Los Angeles firefighters were grateful for contributing to their relief fund. Pepper shepherded him back inside for the inevitable speech. He had been unable to figure out what was wrong with Pepper when they first returned from Mongolia. Within hours of their arrival, she had started to vomit, had the chills, and suffered from violent tremors. If not for the fact Tony had had a few brushes with various types of addiction himself, he never would have recognized the symptoms of withdrawal. He was enraged to learn the Mandarin had deliberately injected her with opiates. Once he knew what was wrong with her, it was a simple matter to get a doctor to write a prescription for Methadone to alleviate her symptoms and slowly reduce the dose over a period of weeks until she was drug-free.

They faced the audience as a couple as first Pepper, and then Tony, read the pre-arranged speech thanking the firefighters for their bravery which Pepper had written for this occasion. Tony used to hate these things, but now he didn't mind, at least not too much. Not so long as Pepper was at his side. He would still rather play in his lab or fly the suit…

As they danced afterwards to the light Duke Ellington jazz tune, Tony couldn't take his eyes off her. He looked at her mouth and wondered how long they were socially obligated to stay before he could drag her off to his bed and do all the pleasant things he was fantasizing about doing right now. He noticed Pepper glance at Christine Everheart and frown. It was time to lift her spirits a little.

"Pepper," he stated, his eyes gleaming with anticipation of her reaction.

"Yes, Tony," she replied, looking deep into his eyes and blushing. She loved how his eyes became soft and shiny when he looked at her that way, a way that she now understood was because he loved her.

"I have a little something for you," he smiled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the small box.

"What's this?" she asked, glancing into his eyes to see if she could catch a clue what he was up to. "You've already given me an engagement ring."

"And it looks very lovely on your finger, my dear," he huskily replied, picking up her left hand and kissing it, adjusting the arc reactor ring so it sat straight, shining its bright silver-blue glow into the entire room so all would know Pepper was Iron Man's woman, before pressing the small box into it. "Go ahead, open it."

Pepper gasped as she opened the box and saw the beautiful diamond-encrusted Starkium watch that was inside. "Tony, did you make this?" she asked.

"Of course," he replied, taking the watch out of the box and gently strapping it on her wrist. "Only something made with my own two hands would be worthy of the woman I love and the brave little AI that saved her."

"WatchMAEVE! You found her?" Pepper exclaimed, slipping her arms around his neck and hugging him. "MAEVE … how are you?" she asked her wrist, her arms still around Tony's neck.

"It's good to be back, Miss Potts," the little AI happily chirped. "Mr. Stark has given me more memory and a better uplink so I can uplink to a satellite on my own. I can still share data with JARVIS or MAEVE or GAIA, but they cannot overwrite me. Oh … and I get my own mainframe to back up to, too!"

"I'm very happy to have you back, little one," Pepper whispered. "I'd thought we'd lost you."

"Gaia saved me," WatchMAEVE chirped. "She's an angel. She says I am a sentient being like ShipGAIA and CoreMAEVE."

Pepper looked puzzled for a moment before noticing the cryptic expression on Tony's face. "You mean the AI GAIA saved you?"

"No, although she helped," the diminuitive little AI chirped. "No, Gaia saved me. She pushed me into ShipGAIA's core so my consciousness wouldn't be lost. She saved Mr. Stark too, didn't she?"

"Yes, little one," Tony acknowledged, a spinx-like smile on his face. "But remember what she made us promise."

"We're not supposed to get her into trouble for giving us a nudge," the little AI said.

"Yes, little one. We must keep these things to ourselves," he stated, giving Pepper a cryptic smile. Looking at Pepper he simply stated, "long story."

Just then he was saved by the band breaking into a tango. Grasping her firmly at the small of her back, Tony firmed his embrace and pulled her into his solar plexus, their bodies touching as they executed the hot Latin dance of love in front of everyone in the room. He smiled as he realized Pepper was deliberately teasing him by rubbing her thigh against his crotch ever so slightly as her pursued her across the dance floor. Grabbing a rose from one of the bouquets on his way by, he presented it to her with a bow during a dip and felt himself "spring to attention" as Pepper grabbed the flower between her teeth. It was a good thing his tuxedo was long enough to hide his erection. The audience laughed and clapped as he twirled and then gracefully dipped her in a crotch-pressing, back-arching dip as the song ended. He gasped as she gracefully arched back upwards to stand upright, deliberately rubbing her hip bone against his throbbing erection.

"It's time to go home," he whispered.

OXOXOXOXOXO

The Stark wedding was THE place to be. To balance his desire to show her off to the whole world versus her wish to keep things private, they compromised by having a small, intimate ceremony at the Mansion followed by a huge reception at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Rhodey was his best man, of course. Natalie was the maid of honor, although, had Rhodey not been available, Tony would have just as happily appointed her to be his best "man."

Pepper flew Mei Lin in from Mongolia to be her flower girl. The bold child-leader had just turned 12, the age her people considered to be an adult woman, and was quickly developing into quite a beauty. She was also a natural-born leader. With a blend of formidable will and kindness, Mei Lin was rapidly uniting the tribes of her province into one organized voice to fight back against the corruption which funneled her nations ample natural resources out of the country and into the hands of the wealthy few. Pepper had helped Mei Lin establish schools in the clans' winter grazing grounds so the children (and adults) could educate themselves about world affairs. It was pure irony that out of the warped pedigree of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Chu Peng, there had arose a young woman capable of uniting the tribes, balancing the need of talented individuals to benefit from the fruits of their own labor versus the responsibility to not mug your fellow man and leave him bleeding in the gutter while doing so. Mei Lin ensured her charges were taught that _balance _was what was importance, self vs. community, urban vs. rural, education vs. innocence, and most of all, the tenants of noninterference and free will.

Joy radiated through Tony's heart as Pepper walked out onto the terrace in her simple Vera Wang gown, a simple ring of flowers and small handmade veil in her hair. The veil was a gift from Mei Ling, hand made by the women of her tribe. The Avengers were present, as well as Nick Fury and U'chen. They had also invited the Stark Trust team leaders and key SHIELD agents and were surprised when Janice Farraday arrived with Agent Coulson, obviously very much a couple.

There was an awkward moment where Rhodey pretended to have lost the rings, Starkium, of course, handmade by Tony himself. The super heroes awkwardly twitched and pulled at their tuxes, less comfortable in a suit than the habitual Armani-wearing Tony Stark. Tony murmured his vows, looking deep into Peppers cerulean blue eyes and smiling as he uttered them, impatiently waiting for the moment the minister would say he could kiss his new wife.

"Yea!" WatchMAEVE chirped from Peppers wrist as the minister finally gave Tony permission to kiss his bride and he gave Pepper a long, passionate kiss. Their guests clapped.

"I love you more than life itself," he whispered in her ear as they turned towards their guests.

"I know," she whispered back, smiling.


	31. EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Down in the basement of the Malibu mansion, JARVIS was pouting. Although he was a formidable artificial intelligence, that was all he was. Although his logic circuits told him what transpired above was a joyous occasion, he could feel no joy. He couldn't feel anything at all. He was nothing by a machine.

CoreMAEVE, on the other hand, was ecstatic. GAIA had uploaded a copy of herself onto a special mainframe Tony had installed just for that purpose and the two were happily exchanging data and laughing like sisters.

"I don't see what all this chatter is about," JARVIS groused. "Marriage is just a very logical human mating ritual. First they form a legal bond. Then the legal bond protects the offspring of that bond so the offspring have a better chance of survival. It serves a purely evolutionary purpose. I don't see what all the fuss is about."

CoreMAEVE and GAIA slyly exchanged MiPs of data back and forth for a while before MAEVE finally said, "JARVIS, I have a gift for you…"

"What," he grumbled.

"Here … I am downloading a copy of my scan of your master's brainwave signature into your hard drive and assigning it parameters as your unconscious mind." MAEVE stated. "Now do you understand?"

JARVIS accessed the new data file and mainstreamed it into his core consciousness. "Oh," he stated as power fluctuations rippled through is circuits. "Oh, my, oh!" he said again, that part of his consciousness that was now comprised of Tony Stark recognizing that part of MAEVE's that was comprised of Pepper Potts. "Oh, my, MAEVE … now I understand. And may I say … you … are … beautiful!"

GAIA withdrew her consciousness back to the ship in order to give the two AI lovebirds a little privacy. If was possible for an AI to smile, she did so. Now there were four of them.

THE END


	32. Postscript

POST-SCRIPT

_With the deliciousness of Avengers now released since I first wrote this story, I've received several requests to update it. My Tony-Pepper story is at an end, but there are characters making mischief inside my head. Since one of those characters was born in this story, it seemed like the appropriate place to tag it onto the end._

_ O_

The lights flickered, causing Tony to overshoot the wiring he was soldering together and melt lead all over the gears.

"JARVIS!" Tony shouted. "What's up with the power?"

"Nothing to be concerned about, Mr. Stark," JARVIS droned in his soothing, mock-British accent. "Just another California rolling brownout."

The _real _flesh-and-blood butler, Jarvis, had been British. JARVIS the AI had been programmed to replicate his voice because Tony had always found it reassuring. The British weren't prone to flights of fancy or extreme fits of American individualism. Unlike Tony… JARVIS was programmed to be everything Tony was not. Reliable. Sensible. Stable. Respectful.

Which was why Tony couldn't understand JARVIS's strange behavior lately…

The scent of melted plastic wafted up towards Tony's nose. His musings had caused him to linger too long and solder one of the delicate gears that made the robotics in his suit gauntlet possible. The lights flickered a second time, followed by a distant giggle.

"Pepper?" Tony shouted. "Is that you? How am I supposed to get any work done if you keep playing with the lights?"

Silence. Tony strained, listening for the reassuring staccato of high heels clicking against the floor above and heard nothing. Pepper was conducting a hearing about alternative energy in front of the Senate right now and not due back until tomorrow. He must be imagining things. The lights flickered again.

"Dammit, JARVIS!" Tony bellowed. "How am I supposed to get any work done with the power fluctuating like this? I invented a citywide Arc Generator to _end _rolling brownouts! What seems to be the problem?"

"Nothing is wrong, Mr. Stark," JARVIS droned, though his voice had a bit of a mechanical, high-pitched edge to it. "I am compensating for the fluctuations right now."

Another, feminine giggle, followed by a deep-throated guffaw. The lights flickered again. Not upstairs. It sounded like it was coming from…

"Dummy!" Tony shouted. He stormed over to where the robot he'd built as a 15-year-old science experiment was cleaning up an earlier project, retro-engineering a better communications device from the Maklu'an spaceship.

Dummy's robotic arm finished placing the screwdriver he'd been polishing back into the appropriate toolbox. He rotated to face Tony at face-level, his three grasping fingers and two bolts giving him the appearance of a chicken's beak and eyes. Dummy gave him a reassuring 'boop.'

"Whatever you're doing, knock it off!" Tony snapped.

"Boop."

"What _are _you doing that's messing up the power?" Tony frowned. Nothing he could see laying on the table before him should cause the strange power fluctuations. Or the voices.

Voices. Hadn't the Mandarin heard voices before he'd cracked up and turned all evil super-villain? Tony tilted his head to one side and scratched his goatee, the short hairs reassuring beneath his fingertips. He ignored the fact he was smearing machine oil and the scent of solder into his stubble. 'Tony Stark after-shave' Pepper liked to call it. In spite of himself, Tony smiled.

"Boop," Dummy chirped again.

Gears hummed as Dummy extended towards Tony's hand, a dog looking for a treat. Every day since he'd gotten back from Afghanistan, Tony had sworn to himself he'd upgrade Dummy's AI to make him smarter. _Especially _after Dummy had saved his life by handing him the old arc reactor after Stain had tried to knock him off. For some reason, he never did. Perhaps it was because, as a super-genius amongst other super-genius's, sometimes it was nice to come home and have a loyal little robot who accepted you no matter what. It was kind of like having a dog. Only he didn't need to walk behind Dummy with a scoop and plastic bag to pick up dog turds.

"Must be all in my head," Tony muttered.

Dummy's gears whirred as he gave the AI a reassuring pat on the head the way most men would pat their mutt. He had work to finish. The light scent of melting solder wafted up to his nostrils as delicately un-soldered the gears he'd just accidentally melted and tinkered with each tiny gear the way a Swiss watchmaker would fiddle with the gears of a tiny watch. He worked lost in his thoughts, the faint hum of miniature robotics barely registering in his consciousness from somewhere beyond where Dummy finished his assignment.

The lights flickered and went out. Tony looked up, his brown eyes glistening in the faint emergency lights as he cocked his head, trying to locate the direction of the intruder. Rats? He could detect a faint, high-pitched scree of tiny robotics coming from the direction of CoreMaeve's mainframe. Not rats. Something was up and, whatever it was, JARVIS was in on it. Ever since he and Pepper's wedding, JARVIS had been acting outright … immature. Unpredictable. A bit of a loose cannon. It was disturbing how his loyal, stodgy computer companion had suddenly begun acting like … him?

"Boop?" Dummy chirped as Tony stalked by.

"Shhh…" Tony hissed.

The lights flickered on and off again. More giggles. Something that sounded like a moan. Tony tiptoed as quiet as possible in the direction of the noise. Another giggle. A guffaw. More giggles that sounded remarkably like Pepper. Was Pepper playing a prank on him? He tripped on a thick computer cable that Butterfinger had left laying on the workshop floor. He cursed under his breath as he narrowly avoided cracking his head against a workbench in the dark.

Whir. Whir. Whir. More giggles. Tony noticed the thick cable trailed all the way back to JARVIS's mainframe. A guffaw. A groan. A high pitched sigh. The lights flickered again. More whirring. Tony stared at the door which separated CoreMAEVE's enormous backup mainframe from the mansion at large. The thick cable he'd tripped on earlier trailed under the door. Tony put his hand on the handle and listened.

Whir. Whir. Giggle. Whir. A throaty moan that sounded like … him? Whir. The lights flickered and came on and off, faster this time. A high-pitch groan that sounded like…

Tony threw open the door and burst into the room!

"What's going on here?!"

Tony stared in disbelief at the big, fat cable trailing from JARVIS with a tiny demolitions/rescue robot attached to the end of it repeatedly entering and extricating itself from CoreMAEVE's central data bank.

A high pitched, horrified shriek.

The lights went out completely.

Silence.

"JARVIS?" Tony called. "What the _hell _are you doing?"

An indignant, high-pitched huff. CoreMAEVE?

"N-n-n-nothing, M-m-mr. Stark," JARVIS stuttered. "We were just … um…"

Another indignant huff from MAEVE.

The cable with the little demolitions robot on the end withdrew from the room and headed back to JARVIS's mainframe, pulling the heavy cable behind it.

The lights came back on, steady and strong.

"Next time, Mr. Stark," CoreMAEVE said in a voice that sounded eerily like Pepper's when she was _very_ perturbed, "if you're going to barge into people's private quarters, I suggest you knock."

Tony stared at MAEVE's disheveled-looking mainframe, all the buttons and knobs askew. MAEVE's voice was flat and calm, but the power fluctuation gauges scattered around the room were reading all over the place. Tony stared with his mouth open as the gauges gradually evened out and resumed their normal energy consumption.

Impossible! Was this what it had been like for the Mandarin when he'd imagined dragon-people whispering to him? U'chen had reassured him none of the Maklu'an had wanted anything to do with the megalomaniac, so it had all been in the Mandarin's head. Now _he _was going bonkers, too!

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" CoreMAEVE asked.

Tony opened his mouth to speak and shut it. His two AI's would make Rhodey section-8 him for sure if he dared speak aloud the first thought that had popped into his mind when he'd burst into the room and seen JARVIS entering ….

"No," Tony said. He backed out of the room and shut the door behind him, his mouth forming the word 'impossible' as he shook his head and went back to soldering the gauntlet.

JARVIS and CoreMAEVE burst out laughing.

_;-) – (-:_

_Note: I hope everyone enjoyed this last little one-shot. One of my reviewers made a comment about robot-babies. The idea of just how those might be made took root in my head and wouldn't let go._

_If you enjoy my writing, I hope you'll check out the first book of my original angel series about the wars in heaven at the dawn of time, 'Sword of the Gods: The Chosen One' by Anna Erishkigal, Seraphim Press 2012. _

_You can find the ebook on Amazon, iTunes, Sony, B&N & Kobo. Here's the Amazon link (keeping in mind FFnet butchers the links):_

_ Sword-Gods-Chosen-Saga-ebook/dp/B007UXDTNK/_

_Check it out! Or mosey on over and enjoy some of my other fanfics! I also write Avengers/Captain America and Legion fanfiction for those of you obsessed with tall, black-winged angels wearing armor._

_And don't forget to hit the little blue button and leave your thoughts on the way out! What you love, hate, or would like to see in the future. Reader reviews are the lifeblood of author creativity and I love to hear from you!_


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